ALL YEAR STUDY GUIDE: US History
Results of the seven years war→ also known as the French Indian war, it lasted from 1754 to 1763 and had 5 decisive results:
1.) With the French threat gone, the colonies were free to settle across the Appalachian Mountains. This movement west led to conflict with the Indians, which in turn led to Indian attacks. To avoid any more conflict with them the British government issued the proclamation of 1763, which prohibited colonists from settling beyond the Appalachian Mountains. Colonists however contradicted the proclamation.
2.) Colonists found that they shared many ideas and goals. From this a nationalistic pride rained.
3.) Britain’s struggle to defeat the French showed that it was indeed possible to beat them.
4.) The British treasury was depleted and it looked to the colonies to share some of the burden (give money back) for protection it had provided—the colonists however didn’t feel obligated to give them money.
5.) Valuable military experience was gained
Proclamation of 1763→ After the French and Indian war, the British crown issued this proclamation with the Indians, it forbade the colonists from crossing the Appalachian mountains for purpose of settlement. The colonists ignored this order.
Sugar Act→Lord Grenville created the Sugar Act in1764. It placed a tax on sugar, molasses, textiles, coffee, iron, and other goods imported to the colonies.
Currency Act→ Also passed in 1764, the currency act forbade the colonies from issuing their own paper money. In addition the colonists were forced to pay all taxes in gold and silver—this drained money from the colonies.
Quartering Act→Passed in 1765 the Quartering Act made the colonists provide barracks (camps) and supplies for British troops stationed in the US. This created a lot of tension between the British and the Colonies.
Boston Massacre→ On March 5, 1770, British troops fired on a group of colonists who had been harassing a group of British soldiers. This clash between the British soldiers and the US colonists/citizens resulted in the death of one black colonist: Crispus Attucks, and two others. The British soldiers were placed on trial. In the end all charges were lifted.
Boston Tea Party→ Samuel Adams led a group of protesters (who were boycotting cheap Caribbean tea) to dump a shipment of that tea into the Boston Harbor. This incident resulted in the passage of the Intolerable Acts (1774):
1.) Closing of the Boston Harbor
2.) Suspension of town meetings in Massachusetts
3.) Suspension of the Charter of Massachusetts
4.) Quartering of soldiers in colonial homes
5.) The trials of the British officials who broke the law was to take place in England (bias)
6.) Placement of General Thomas Gage in Massachusetts to enforce the laws
Common Sense/Thomas Paine→Written in January 1776, Thomas Paine’s “common Sense” was a pamphlet in which he argued that the colonies were destined to be independent. In June 1776 the second continental congress agreed with Paine as the declaration of independence was issued.
Articles of Confederation→ After the colonies declared themselves free from Great Britain, legislation had to be written. The Articles of confederation took effect in 1781. The states agreed to “enter into a firm league of friendship,” with congress permitted to exercise only those powers which it was delegated. During the “Critical Period” the Articles proved to contain many flaws. First of all there was no executive branch—the Articles lacked the power to enforce the laws congress passed. The failure to include a judicial branch, which would interpret the law and make decisions, made each state the ultimate interpreter. And the congress didn’t have the power to collect taxes, raise a military, coin money, or regulate interstate commerce. In addition, the congress was a unicameral legislature, meaning “one house,” with each state having one vote. 9/13 votes was needed to pass legislation—further weakening the law making process. Despite these flaws, however, the Articles of Confederation was successfully established, and it had triumphed over some major milestones. For one it conducted the War of Independence in the 1770’s and negotiated the Treaty of Paris in 1783, ending the war. While the Articles was a weak representation of what America was, it did triumph and get us through a critical period in history, however the ride was a little turbulent.
Checks and Balances→ James Madison conceived the idea for “checks and balances,” he believed that all the power of the government ultimately derived from the people, therefore it was crucial to keep the government close to the people. He believed that having many “centers of power” was crucial because each center could check the other, keeping one from attaining to much power and potentially becoming despotic.
Separation of Powers→ There are three branches of government in the US. One is the legislative branch, the other is the executive branch, and the last one is the judicial branch. Each power or branch is responsible for a different task. The legislative branch, obviously, produces legislation. The executive branch enforces the laws produced by the legislative branch. And the Judicial branch decides weather or not these laws are constitutional and fair.
Bill of Rights→Adopted in 1791, the Bill of Rights is responsible for the first 10 amendments in the constitution. These amendments protect basic human rights, they include: freedom of speech, press, religion, and assembly; the right to bear arms (have a gun); the right to a trial by jury and fair punishment. The bill of rights also incorporated some “higher level aspects,” like states rights. Amendment X delves into states rights and declares that any power not specifically delegated to the congress is reserved for the states. This amendment (AKA reserved power clause) exists in order to reassure the states that they are protected from the tyranny of a powerful central government.
Proclamation line of 1793→AKA the proclamation of neutrality, it declared that the US favored neither England nor France when the French declared war on England in 1793. Washington wrote this piece of legislation and told the citizens not to take sides either.
Bicameral legislature→ Bicameral is another word for two housed. So put into context a bicameral legislature consists of a senate and a house of representatives. The number of representatives in the house was to be determined by population, and these representatives were to be elected by the people every two years. The senate would be composed of two representatives, two from each state, and they would be elected every 6 years by the state legislature. Direct election of senators didn’t occur until the 17th amendment was created in 1913. Bicameral Legislature was first proposed in the Great Compromise, which took ideas from both the New Jersey Plan and the Virginia plan, created by William Patterson and James Madison respectively. The great compromise was part of the constitutional convention.
Objections of Anti-federalists→ Anti-federalists were against the constitution. They believed that it compromised the goals of the American Revolution and gave too much power to the central government. The anti federalists, however, argued that a bill of rights was needed. And because of this the bill of rights was created. So although the Anti federalists disagreed with the constitution, they helped engender (create) the bill of rights, which is obviously one of the most important parts of the constitution.
Shays Rebellion→In 1786 Daniel Shays along with 1200-armed followers (mostly farmers) attacked a federal arsenal in Springfield Massachusetts. Shays’ farm was about to be foreclosed due to debt and owed back taxes. Shays along with his followers wanted cheap paper money, reduced taxes, and suspension of mortgage foreclosures. The Massachusetts Militia quickly annihilated the rebellion. This rebellion, however, captured the attention of the American people and exposed them to the effects the articles of confederation was having on people. Fearful that this chaos would spread, the founding fathers held the “constitutional convention” and proposed creating a new constitution. So ultimately shays rebellion served as the catalyst for a “new” America.
Bacon’s rebellion→ In1670 a group of x-indentured servants (freedmen) led by Nathaniel Bacon protested about the Native American policies of the Virginian Governor, William Berkley. They felt his policies were too lenient and that his policies ultimately affected freedmen in bad ways. The rebellion eventually ended when Bacon died of a stomach virus. But during the time of the rebellion Berkley fled to retrieve troops from Britain, when they arrived the rebellion was over. The significance of Bacon’s rebellion was that the colonists began fearing indentured servants, which eventually led to the colonists relying on slavery as the main form of labor.
Whiskey Rebellion→ It occurred in 1794, when Pennsylvanian farmers, disgusted by the excise tax on whiskey, refused to pay the tax. The ability of the government to collect taxes, and enforce the law was being tested. And so Washington sent out federal troops to collect the tax and break up the rebellion. The federal government had proven that it, indeed, could enforce the law!
Women’s Christian Temperance Union→ The purpose of the WCTU is to combat the influence of alcohol on families and society. Founded in Fredonia, New York in 1873, the group spearheaded the crusade for prohibition. Members advanced their cause by entering saloons, singing, praying, and urging saloonkeepers to stop selling alcohol. Subsequently they got the 18th amendment installed which implemented prohibition nationally, but the 21st amendment repealed the 18th.
William Lloyd Garrison→ was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer. He is best known as the editor of the radical abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator, and as one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society.
Rebellions in antebellum period→
Nat turner: led a group, in 1831, of slaves to Southampton Virginia where 60 whites were killed—all blacks were executed.
Gabriel Prosser: 1800: who planned a slave rebellion in the Richmond area in the summer of 1800. Local militia was warned before hand and the rebellion was put down easily—they were hung.
Denmark Vessey: 1822: who planned what would have been one of the largest slave rebellions in the United States. Word of the plans was leaked out, and Charleston (South Carolina) authorities arrested the plot's leaders before the uprising could begin. Vessey and others were tried, convicted and executed.
Henry David Thoreau→ jailed for not paying his taxes, Thoreau was an American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, abolitionist, development critic, sage writer and philosopher. He is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state.
Seneca Falls/Declaration→ The Seneca Falls Convention, held in Seneca Falls, New York on July 19 to July 20, 1848, was the first women's rights convention held in the United States. Prominent at the 1848 convention were leading reformers, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. These reformers, active in the anti-slavery movement; eventually used the language and structure of the United States Declaration of Independence to state their claim to the rights they felt women were entitled to as American citizens in the Declaration of Sentiments. They wanted to be entitled to rights they believed they deserved.
Manifest Destiny→ Manifest Destiny was the belief that the United States was destined to expand from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean; it has also been used to advocate for or justify other territorial acquisitions. Advocates of Manifest Destiny believed that expansion was not only good, but that it was obvious ("manifest") and certain ("destiny"). Originally a political catch phrase of the 19th century, "Manifest Destiny" eventually became a standard historical term, often used as a synonym for the expansion of the United States across the North American continent. The term was first used primarily by Jacksonian Democrats in the 1840s to promote the annexation of much of what is now the Western United States (the Oregon Territory, the Texas Annexation, and the Mexican Cession). It was revived in the 1890s, this time with Republican supporters, as a theoretical justification for U.S. expansion outside of North America. The term fell out of usage by U.S. policy makers early in the 20th century, but some commentators believe that aspects of Manifest Destiny, particularly the belief in an American "mission" to promote and defend democracy throughout the world, continues to have an influence on American political ideology. The term was also used when the US expanded into the Philippines.
The Mexican-American War→ Was an armed military conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas. Mexico did not recognize the secession and subsequent military victory by Texas in 1836; it considered Texas a rebel province. In the United States, the war was a partisan issue, with most Whigs opposing it and most southern Democrats, animated by a popular belief in the Manifest Destiny (and the opportunity to gain territory for the expansion of slavery), supporting it. In Mexico, the war was considered a matter of national pride. The most important consequence of the war for the United States was the Mexican Cession, in which the Mexican territories of Alta California and Santa Fé de Nuevo México were ceded to the United States under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In Mexico, the enormous loss of territory following the war encouraged its government to enact policies to colonize (build up their remaining land) its northern territories as a hedge against further losses.
Compromise of 1850→ The Compromise of 1850 was a series of bills that wanted to resolve the territorial and slavery controversies arising from the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). There were 5 laws which balanced the interests of the slave states of the South, and the free states of the north. California was admitted as a free state; Texas received financial compensation for relinquishing claim to lands west of the Rio Grande in what is now New Mexico; the territory of New Mexico (including present-day Arizona and a portion of southern Nevada) was organized without any specific prohibition of slavery; the slave trade (but not slavery itself) was terminated in the District of Columbia; and the stringent Fugitive Slave Law was passed, requiring all U.S. citizens to assist in the return of runaway slaves regardless of the legality of slavery in the specific states. The measures, a compromise designed by Whig Senator Henry Clay (who failed to get them through himself), were shepherded to passage by Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas and Whig Senator Daniel Webster. The measures were opposed by Senator John C. Calhoun. The Compromise was made possible after the death of President Zachary Taylor, who was in opposition. Succeeding President Taylor was a strong supporter of the compromise: Millard Fillmore. It temporarily defused sectional tensions in the United States, postponing the secession crisis and the American Civil War.
Birth of the Republican party (why??)→ Trying times spawn new forces. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 divided the country at the 36° 30' parallel between the pro-slavery, agrarian South and anti-slavery, industrial North, creating an uneasy peace which lasted for three decades. This peace was shattered in 1854 by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Settlers would decide if their state would be free or slave. Northern leaders such as Horace Greeley, Salmon Chase and Charles Sumner could not sit back and watch the flood of pro-slavery settlers cross the parallel. A new party was needed. Where was the party born? Following the publication of the "Appeal of Independent Democrats" in major newspapers, spontaneous demonstrations occurred. In early 1854, the first proto-Republican Party meeting took place in Ripon, Wisconsin. On June 6, 1854 on the outskirts of Jackson, Michigan upwards of 10,000 people turned out for a mass meeting "Under the Oaks." This led to the first organizing convention in Pittsburgh on February 22, 1856. The gavel fell to open the Party's first nominating convention, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 17, 1856, announcing the birth of the Republican Party as a unified political force.
Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854→ it created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opened new lands, repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which divided the slave and non-slave states, and it allowed the settlers to decide whether or not to have slavery within their state. The initial purpose of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was to create opportunities for a Mid-eastern Transcontinental Railroad. It was not problematic until popular sovereignty was written into the proposal. The new Republican Party, which formed in reaction against allowing slavery where it had been forbidden, emerged as the dominant force throughout the North. The act was designed by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, and its possible it was just created to spur more rail road development. The act established that settlers could decide for themselves whether to allow slavery, in the name of "popular sovereignty" or rule of the people. Opponents denounced the law as a concession to the Slave Power of the South.
Dred Scott vs. Sandford→ was a decision by the United States Supreme Court that ruled that people of African descent imported into the United States and held as slaves, or their descendants—whether or not they were slaves—could never be citizens of the United States, and that the United States Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in federal territories. The Court also ruled that slaves could not sue in court, and that slaves—as chattel or private property—could not be taken away from their owners without due process.
Uncle Tom's Cabin→ an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the United States, so much so in the latter case that the novel intensified the sectional conflict leading to the American Civil War. Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century (and the second best-selling book of that century, following the Bible) and is credited with helping fuel the abolitionist cause in the 1850s. In the first year after it was published, 300,000 copies of the book were sold in the United States alone. The book's impact was so great that when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe at the start of the American Civil War, Lincoln is often quoted as having declared, "So this is the little lady who made this big war."
Battle of Antietam/ turning point/emancipation proclamation→ The Battle of Antietam was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with about 23,000 casualties. Although the battle was tactically inconclusive, it had unique significance as enough of a victory to give President Abraham Lincoln the confidence to announce his Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation consists of two executive orders. The first one, issued September 22, 1862, declared the freedom of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America that did not return to Union control by January 1, 1863. The second order, issued January 1, 1863, named the specific states where it applied. The Emancipation Proclamation was widely attacked at the time as freeing only the slaves over which the Union had no power, but in practice, it committed the Union to ending slavery, which was controversial in the North. It was not a law passed by Congress, but a presidential order empowered After the war there was concern that the proclamation, as a war measure, had not made the elimination of slavery permanent. Several former slave states had prohibited slavery; however, some slavery continued to exist until the entire institution was finally wiped out by the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment on December 18, 1865.
Sherman's March to the Sea/Scorched Earth Policy→ Sherman's March to the Sea is the name commonly given to the "Savannah Campaign," conducted in late 1864 by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army during the American Civil War. The campaign began with Sherman's troops leaving the captured city of Atlanta, Georgia, on November 15, 1864, and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 22. A scorched earth policy is a military tactic, which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area.
African's in the Civil War→ Approximately 180,000 African-Americans comprising 163 units served in the Union Army during the Civil War, and many more African-Americans served in the Union Navy. Both free Africans-Americans and runaway slaves joined the fight. In general, white soldiers and officers believed that black men lacked the courage to fight and fight well. And therefore they were paid only one-third of their white counter parts. Although black soldiers proved themselves as reputable soldiers, discrimination in pay and other areas remained widespread. According to the Militia Act of 1862, soldiers of African descent were to receive $10.00 a month, plus a clothing allowance of $3.50. In actual numbers, African-American soldiers comprised 10% of the entire Union Army. Losses among African-Americans were high, and from all reported casualties, approximately one-third of all African-Americans enrolled in the military lost their lives during the Civil War.
Homestead act of 1862→ The Homestead Act was a United States Federal law that gave an applicant freehold title to 160 acres of undeveloped land outside of the original 13 colonies. The new law required three steps: file an application, improve the land, and file for deed of title. Anyone who had never taken up arms against the U.S. Government, including freed slaves, could file an application and improvements to a local land office. The Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862. Eventually 1.6 million homesteads were granted and 270,000,000 acres were privatized between 1862 and 1986, a total of 10% of all lands in the United States. The people who participated in homesteading attained the name “homesteaders.”
Copperheads→ were a vocal group of Democrats in the North who opposed the American Civil War, wanting an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates. The name Copperheads was given to them by their opponents, the Republicans.They were also called "Peace Democrats" and "Butternuts.” The most famous Copperhead was Ohio's Clement L. Vallandigham.
Freedman's Bureau→ U.S. federal government agency that aided distressed refugees of the American Civil War. The Freedmen's Bureau Bill, which created the Bureau, was initiated by President Abraham Lincoln and intended to last for one year after the end of the civil war. It’s purpose was to aid former slaves through education, health care, and employment, it became later a key agency in the first years of Reconstruction, aiming primarily at assisting freedmen (freed ex-slaves) in the South. It was disbanded under Lincoln's successor, President Andrew Johnson. The Freedmen's Bureau spent $17 million to help establish homes and distribute food, and was also involved in the establishment of 4,000 schools and 100 hospitals for former slaves. This Bureau also helped freedmen find new jobs. Right at the end of the war, the Bureau's main role was providing emergency food, housing, and medical aid to refugees. Nearly a year after the bureau was put into effect, Radical Republicans attempted to increase the powers of the bureau. President Andrew Johnson vetoed this bill in February 1866, destroying the bureau.
Lincoln's 10% plan→ Abraham Lincoln offered a full pardon called the 10 percent (reconstruction) plan. It decreed that a state could be reintegrated into the Union when 10 percent of its voters in the presidential election of 1860 had taken an oath of allegiance to the U.S. and pledged to abide by emancipation. The next step in the process would be for the states to formally elect a state government. Also, the states were able to write a new constitution, but it had to abolish slavery forever. The Radical Republicans in the North were in strong opposition to this plan, as they thought it was too lenient towards the South and wanted more stringent requirements to be placed on the Southern states for re-admission into the Union. Lincoln, however, chose not to further punish the South. His plan was lenient because he wanted to preserve the Union and start perpetuating the wealth and prosperity of the country rather than wasting time on further subjugating the South.
Black Codes→ The Black Codes were laws passed on the state and local levels mainly in the rural Southern states in the United States to limit the civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans. While some northern states also passed legislation discriminating against African Americans before the Civil War, the term Black Codes is most commonly associated with legislation passed by Southern states after the Civil War in an attempt to control the labor, movements and activities of African Americans.
The Nullification Crisis→ was a sectional crisis during the presidency of Andrew Jackson. It all started with the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions, which introduced nullification and states rights. South Carolina took advantaged of these resolutions and proposed the nullification ordinance, which declared that S.C. could nullify whatever it wanted. The highly protective Tariff of 1828 (also called the "Tariff of Abominations") was enacted into law in 1828 during the presidency of John Quincy Adams. Many states wanted a reduction in the % of the tariff. Jackson signed into law the Tariff of 1832 which made some reductions in tariff rates. The reductions were too little for South Carolina, and in November 1832 a state convention declared that the tariffs of both 1828 and 1832 were unconstitutional and unenforceable in South Carolina after February 1, 1833. Military preparations to resist anticipated Federal enforcement were initiated by the state. In late February both a Force Bill, authorizing the President to use military force against South Carolina, and a new negotiated tariff satisfactory to South Carolina were passed by Congress. The South Carolina convention reconvened and repealed its Nullification Ordinance on March 11, 1833.
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson→ Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875) was the seventeenth President of the United States (1865–1869), succeeding to the Presidency upon the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. As president he took charge of Presidential Reconstruction — the first phase of Reconstruction — which lasted until the Radical Republicans gained control of Congress in the 1866 elections. His conciliatory policies towards the South, his hurry to reincorporate the former Confederates back into the union, and his vetoes of civil rights bills embroiled him in a bitter dispute with the Radical Republicans. The Radicals in the House of Representatives impeached him in 1868, but he was acquitted by a single vote in the Senate. He was the first U.S. President to be impeached.
Fredrick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis→ Frederick Jackson Turner (November 14, 1861 – March 14, 1932) is widely regarded as one of the two most influential American historians of the early 20th century. Turner is remembered for his "Frontier Thesis", which stated that the spirit and success of the United States is directly tied to the country's westward expansion. According to Turner, the forging of the unique and rugged American identity occurred at the juncture between the civilization of settlement and the savagery of wilderness. This idea spurred a revived nationalistic sense of “manifest destiny.”
Plessy Vs. Ferguson→ is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision in the legislation of the United States, upholding the constitutionality of racial segregation even in public accommodations (particularly railroads), under the doctrine of "separate but equal". The decision was handed down by a vote of 7 to 1, with the majority opinion written by Justice Henry Billings Brown and the dissent written by Justice John Marshall Harlan, with Justice David Josiah Brewer not participating in this case. "Separate but equal" remained standard doctrine in U.S. law until its final repudiation in the later Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
Problems of homesteaders (the people who participated in homesteading)→
• Life could get boring or lonely very easily, especially for the women homesteaders. Also, if you needed a specific special item not possessed on ordinary homesteads, like medicine perhaps, stores were quite rare, far away from your homestead, and often expensive to buy from.
• When it rained the sod houses roof leaked and sod went everywhere, like on beds and furniture, and snakes sometimes fell into their houses through the roof. Grasshoppers were a huge problem, eating anything they could find that was green. This happened a few times, when huge plagues of them swarmed over the plains.
• Conflict with cowboys for fencing off the land, which they claimed to be their own.
• Indians could be a problem. Usually Indians were very peaceful until the white man got greedy over land, also gold mining. The Indians decided the best way to prevent more white men from coming onto their land was also raiding wagon trains or homesteads.
• Drought was always a threat for their crops and could make or break a winter. If the husband was ill then there may not be any meat on the table for the winter months. If the wife was ill there was no one to look after the children while the husband went hunting (which could take days) unless there were older children. Doctors were miles away as were neighbors.
• Tough life, and people aged very quickly. The life expectancy was approx. 35 - 45 years old.
The Jim Crow laws→ were state and local laws enacted primarily in the Southern states of the United States between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure segregation (by law segregation) in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans and members of other non-white racial groups. In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were usually inferior to those provided for white Americans, systematizing a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages. Some examples of Jim Crow laws are the segregation of public schools, and public transportation, and the segregation of restrooms and restaurants for whites and blacks.
Robber Barons (what is it)→ is a term revived in the 19th century in the United States as a pejorative reference to businessmen and bankers who dominated their respective industries and amassed huge personal fortunes, typically as a direct result of pursuing various anti-competitive or unfair business practices.
Railroad Strike of 1877→ The depression of the 1870s forced the American railroads into a cost-cutting mode. The workers for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad went on strike in 1877 after receiving a second pay cut within a short period of time. Violence erupted; state militia units were brought in, but often proved to be ineffective because of their sympathy for the strikers. Responding to a request from the governor of West Virginia, President Hayes dispatched federal forces to protect the railroad—the first use of such soldiers in a labor matter. The rationale for the show of strength was the government's need to protect the mails. Demonstrations, general strikes and violence occurred in cities across the nation. Pittsburgh was the scene of the greatest loss of life and property damage. Massive intervention by the federal government sank the strikers' spirits and buoyed those of management. The workers eventually capitulated, but harbored ill feeling against Hayes for his action. The strike of 1877 was most violent labor-management confrontation to that point in American history. It was the starting signal for an era of strife between workers and owners.
Pullman Strike→ On May 11, 1894, workers of the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago protested about wage cuts and the firing of union representatives. They sought support from their union, the American Railway Union (ARU), led by Eugene V. Debs, and on June 26 the ARU called a boycott of all Pullman railway cars. Within days, 50,000 rail workers complied and railroad traffic out of Chicago came to a halt. When the railroad owners asked the Federal government to intervene, Attorney General Richard Olney obtained a court injunction. On July 4, President Cleveland dispatched troops to Chicago. Much rioting and bloodshed ensued, but the government's actions broke the strike and the boycott soon collapsed. Debs and three other union officials were jailed for disobeying the injunction.
Gospel of Wealth→ The Gospel of Wealth, or sometimes referred to as the Gospel of Success, was the term for a notion promoted by many successful businessmen that their massive wealth was a social benefit for all. The Gospel of Wealth was a softer and more palatable version of Social Darwinism. The advocate’s linked wealth with responsibility, arguing that those with great material possessions had equally great obligations to society. It was written by Andrew Carnagie.
Settlement house Movement→The settlement house, an approach to social reform with roots in the late 19th century, was a method for serving the poor in urban areas by living among them and serving them directly. As the residents of settlement houses learned effective methods of helping, they then worked to transfer long-term responsibility for the programs to government agencies. Settlement house workers, in their work to find more effective solutions to poverty and injustice, also pioneered the profession of social work.
Progressive Reformers→In the United States, the Progressive Era was a period of reform, which lasted from the 1890s to the 1920s. Progressivists strongly opposed waste and corruption, and they seeked change in regard to worker's rights and protection of the ordinary citizen in general. Initially the movement was successful at local level, and then it progressed to state and gradually national. The reformers (and their opponents) were predominantly members of the middle class. Most were well educated white Protestants who lived in the cities. The Progressivists pushed for social justice, general equality and public safety, but there were contradictions within the movement, especially regarding race.
Gilded Age (1878-1889)→The growth of industry and a wave of immigrants marked this period in American history. The production of iron and steel rose dramatically and western resources like lumber, gold, and silver increased the demand for improved transportation. Railroad development boomed as trains moved goods from the resource-rich West to the East. Steel and oil were in great demand. All this industry produced a lot of wealth for a number of businessmen like John D. Rockefeller (in oil) and Andrew Carnegie (in steel), known as robber barons (people who got rich through ruthless business deals). The Gilded Age gets its name from the many great fortunes created during this period and the way of life this wealth supported.
Cross-of Gold speech→ was a speech delivered by William Jennings Bryan at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The speech advocated Bimetallism. At the time, the Democratic Party wanted to standardize the value of the dollar to silver and opposed pegging the value of the United States dollar to a gold standard alone. The inflation that would result from the silver standard would make it easier for farmers and other debtors to pay off their debts by increasing their revenue dollars. It would also reverse the deflation which the U.S. experienced from 1873-1896.
Populists→ The Populist Party (also known as the People's Party) was a relatively short-lived political party in the United States in the late 19th century. It flourished particularly among western farmers, based largely on its opposition to the gold standard. The party did not remain a lasting feature of the political landscape, though many of its ideas have. The very term "populist" has since become a generic term in U.S. politics for politics, which appeals to the common in opposition to established interests.
Election of 1896→The United States presidential election of November 3, 1896 saw Republican William McKinley defeat Democrat William Jennings Bryan in a campaign considered by historians to be one of the most dramatic in American history. In political science the 1896 campaign is often considered to be a realigning election. McKinley forged a coalition in which businessmen, professionals, skilled factory workers and prosperous farmers were heavily represented; he was strongest in the Northeast, Upper Midwest, and Pacific Coast states. Bryan was the nominee of the Democrats, the Populist Party, and the Silver Republicans. He was strongest in the South, rural Midwest, and Rocky Mountain states. Economic issues, including bimetallism, the gold standard, Free Silver, and the tariff, were crucial. He outspent Bryan by a factor of tenHowever, although Bryan lost the election, his coalition of "outsiders" would dominate the Democratic Party well into the twentieth century, and would play a crucial role in the liberal economic programs of Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson.
Social Gospel→ The Social Gospel movement is a Protestant Christian intellectual movement that was most prominent in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Social Gospel principles continue to inspire newer movements such as Christians Against Poverty. The movement applied Christian principles to social problems, especially poverty, inequality, liquor, crime, racial tensions, slums, bad hygiene, poor schools, and the danger of war.
Muckrakers→The term muckraker most associated with a group of American investigative reporters, novelists and critics from the late 1800s to early 1900s, who investigated and exposed societal issues such as conditions in slums and prisons, factories, insane asylums, sweatshops, mines, child labor and unsanitary conditions in food processing plants. Muckrakers often wrote about impoverished people and took aim at the established institutions of society, sometimes in a sensationalist and tabloid manner. Muckrakers were often accused of being socialists or communists.
Robert La Follette→ was an American politician who served as a U.S. Congressman, the 20th Governor of Wisconsin (1901–1906), and Republican Senator from Wisconsin (1905–1925). He ran for President of the United States as the nominee of his own Progressive Party in 1924, carrying Wisconsin and 17% of the national popular vote or 5 million votes.
Achievements of Teddy Roosevelt→ As President, Roosevelt held the ideal that the Government should be the great authority of the conflicting economic forces in the Nation, especially between capital and labor, guaranteeing justice to each and dispensing favors to none (they are neutral). Roosevelt emerged spectacularly as a "trust buster" by forcing the dissolution of a great railroad combination in the Northwest. Other antitrust suits under the Sherman Act followed. Some of Theodore Roosevelt's most effective achievements were in conservation. He added enormously to the national forests in the West, reserved lands for public use, and fostered great irrigation projects.
Woodrow Wilson’s Policies→ The 'Fourteen Points' were listed in a speech delivered by President Woodrow Wilson of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress on January 8, 1918. This speech was intended to assure the country that the war was being fought for a moral cause and for peace in Europe after World War I. However, only four of the points were adopted completely in the post-war reconstruction of Europe, and the United States Senate refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. One of the most decisive propositions in the 14 points was the creation of the League of Nations, which ended in catastrophic failure, because the US didn’t even join.
Clayton Anti-trust Act→ was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1914 as an amendment to clarify and supplement the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. It was drafted by Henry De Lamar Clayton. The act prohibited exclusive sales contracts, local price cutting to freeze out competitors, rebates, interlocking directorates in corporations capitalized at $1 million or more in the same field of business, and inter-corporate stock holdings. Labor unions and agricultural cooperatives were excluded from the forbidden combinations in the restraint of trade. The act restricted the use of the injunction against labor, and it legalized peaceful strikes, picketing, and boycotts. It declared that “the labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce.”
Birth of a Nation→ is one of the most influential and controversial films in the history of American cinema. Set during and after the American Civil War and directed by D. W. Griffith, the film was based on Thomas Dixon's The Clansman (deals with the KKK), a novel and play, and was released on February 8, 1915. The Birth of a Nation is important in film history for its innovative technical and narrative achievements, and for its status as the first Hollywood "blockbuster." It has provoked great controversy, both in its own day and today, for its promotion of white supremacist and glorification.
W.E.B. Dubois→William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was a noted scholar, editor, and African American activist. Du Bois was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP -- the largest and oldest civil rights organization in America). Throughout his life Du Bois fought discrimination and racism. He made significant contributions to debates about race, politics, and history in the United States in the first half of the 20th century, primarily through his writing and impassioned speaking on race relations. Du Bois also served as editor of The Crisis magazine and published several scholarly works on race and African American history. By the time he died, in 1963, he had written 17 books, edited four journals and played a key role in reshaping black-white relations in America.
Great Migration 20th century→ The Great Migration was the movement of approximately seven million African Americans out of the Southern United States to the North, Midwest and West from 1910 to 1970. Precise estimates of the number of migrants depend on the timeframe. African Americans migrated to escape racism, seek employment opportunities in industrial cities, and to get better education for their children, all of which was widely perceived as to lead to a better life.
Election of 1896/silver and gold issues→ The Panic of 1893 was a severe nationwide depression that brought the money issue to the fore. The "silverites" argued that using silver would inflate the money supply and mean more cash for everyone, which they equated with prosperity. The gold advocates said silver would permanently depress the economy, but that sound money produced by a gold standard would restore prosperity. The gold advocates won decisively in 1896 and 1900. Bimetallism and "Free Silver" were demanded by William Jennings Bryan who took over leadership of the Democratic Party in 1896, as well as the Populist and Silver Republican Parties. The Republican Party nominated William McKinley on a platform supporting the gold standard, which was favored by financial interests on the East Coast. Bryan, the eloquent champion of the cause, gave the famous “Cross of Gold” speech at the National Democratic Convention on July 9, 1896. However, his presidential campaign was ultimately unsuccessful due to economic upturn. The 1896 election saw the election of William McKinley who implemented the gold standard and ran on it in his 1900 reelection. The standard lasted until the Great Depression. It was abandoned in 1934 in FDR’s New Deal economic recovery program.
Election of 1912→ The United States presidential election of 1912 was fought among three major candidates, two of whom had previously won election to the office. Incumbent President William Howard Taft was re-nominated by the Republican party with the support of the conservative wing of the party. After former President Theodore Roosevelt failed to get the Republican nomination, he called his own convention and created a new Progressive Party (nicknamed the “Bull Moose Party”). It nominated Roosevelt and ran candidates for other offices in major states. Democrat Woodrow Wilson was nominated on the 46th ballot of a contentious convention, thanks to the support of William Jennings Bryan. He defeated both Taft and Roosevelt in the general election, winning a huge majority in the Electoral College despite only winning 42% of the popular vote, and initiating the only period between 1892 and 1932 when a Democrat was elected President.
U.S. Attitude in WWI→ Wanted to remain isolationists. Would sell weapons, ammunition and supply to either side. U.S. entered war with Allies due to unrestricted submarine warfare, and the Zimmerman Telegram.
Herbert Hoover and the Food Administration→program designed to give food and help with the U.S. armies in WWI. Voluntarily people would either give food or grow food for the armies. Many people participated in conserving food by participating in “wheatless Wednesdays” and “meatless Mondays”.
League of Nations’ Weaknesses→ lacked armed forces to enforce, countries that made up League were reluctant to make sanctions or use force, many nations were not part of the League, nations could leave League without any consequences
Volstead Act- Alcohol prohibition→ “no person shall manufacture, sell, barter, transport, import, export, deliver, furnish or possess any intoxicating liquor except as authorized by this act"
FDR’s Accomplishments in 1st 100 Days→ Passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act, Securities Act, National Industrial Recoveries Act, and the Banking Act
Amendments→
18th- Established prohibition in the U.S., only amendment to be repealed.
19th- The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
21st- Repealed the 18th amendment
FDR’s Accomplishments as President→ he got elected for 4 terms, that in itself is an accomplishment. He established the new deal, a good idea, but not really concrete in its follow through. He led the US into WW2 and saw it come out successfully. He was president during one of the toughest times.
Reasons for Great Depression→ Less trade due to high tariffs, stock market crash, dust bowl/drought, price/currency inflation,
Conditions of Farmers During Depression→ (AAA) Very bad, many affected by drought/dust bowl. The AAA paid farmers to reduce production and offered them aid in order to reduce the supply, to help the economy. However it was declared unconstitutional in 1936
New Deals Policies and Accomplishments→ there were three parts to FDR’s new deal: the relief sector, and the recovery, and reform sectors. The objective of the new deal was to stabilize the economy and provide aid to the affected. While it aided the affected and did, for 3 years, help stabilize the economy; it failed to provide actual stabilization as another depression occurred in 1937. The Second World War was really the solution to the economic struggle. But do note that some of the programs implemented were successful in providing aid, and temporary economic relief.
Neutrality Acts→ A series of laws passed by congress in response to turmoil leading up to WWII. Overall negative because they did not separate aggressor from victim, so the U.S. would not help either side.
Court Packing Scheme→the Judiciary Reorganization Bill proposed by FDR, gave the president the power to appoint an extra supreme court justice for every current sitting justice over the age of 70½ . FDR proposed this after several components of his New Deal were overturned.
U.S. Attitude in WWII→ Wanted to remain isolationists, meaning neutral, but realized that war was inevitable.
Atlantic Conference→ FDR and Winston Churchill negotiated the Atlantic Charter. It said that No territorial gains were to be sought by the United States or the United Kingdom, Territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned, all peoples had a right to self-determination; trade barriers were to be lowered, There was to be global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare, freedom of seas, Disarmament of aggressor nations, postwar common disarmament, and freedom from want and fear.
Internment Camps→ made for the imprisonment or confinement oc people mostly in large groups without trial. Japanese U.S. citizens were confined in these camps for they were thought to be spies from Japan.
Lend Lease Program→ Let U.S. rent their weapons and other war materials to the Allied Powers. Came after the policy of cash and carry.
Containment, Kennan-Truman Doctrine, NSC-68, Korean and Vietnam Wars (dates & reasons)→ Kennan proposed the idea that communism must be stopped and contained or stay in the already communist governments, by any means possible. We did this by supporting the anti-communist side in the Korean and Vietnam wars.
Reasons for Dropping A-Bombs on Japan→ End the war successfully at the earliest possible time, justified reason for building atomic bomb, lack of incentives not to use weapon, helped achieve diplomatic gains over the uprising USSR, U.S.’ hate against Japan and desire for revenge.
Yalta Conference→ a wartime conference between FDR, W. Churchill, and J. Stalin. Primarily trying to establish agendas for governing post-war Germany.
Arms Race→ competition in supremacy in nuclear warfare mainly between the U.S. and the USSR although other countries participated.
Montgomery Bus Boycott→ Montgomery, Alabama. Social and Political protest that opposed the cities policy of racial segregation on public transits. Rosa Parks and E.D. Nixon. Supreme Court ruled these laws unconstitutional.
Brown vs. School Board Case→ 1954, case in which the Supreme Court said state laws that established separate public schools for black and white students denied black children equal educational opportunities. Separate is not equal.
ESSAYS
GROUP A
1.) The relationship between the French and Indian war and the American Revolution—describe the changing and deteriorating relationship of the colonies with Great Britain.
2.) The strengths and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and the US constitution—compare and contrast, the advantages the constitution provided over the Articles of Confederation
3.) Manifest Destiny in the 19th century—imperialism to the Philippines, hypocrisy we demonstrated
4.) Compromises (what legislation existed (compromise of 1850)) leading up to the Civil War, the catalysts and it’s inevitability
GROUP B
1.) Was the progressive movement successful? What were its goals and achievements? Who started it and what did it represent?
2.) The second industrial revolution, what caused it, what were the results, the leaders, and the government policies
3.) Second Reconstruction
4.) US foreign policy after the world wars, talk about our stance in foreign affairs (cold war, how we chose to be more decisive on a global basis)
LBS U.S. History
It got me an "A" on the final. And it'll do the same for you!
Friday, May 30, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
CHAPTERS 25 AND 26
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Glass Steagul Act
This act provided for banking reform and set up the FDIC. The FDIC is short for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and it insured bank deposits up to $5,000 dollars to encourage people to use banks.
FDR’s Gold Standard Policy
The CCC
It provided employment for young men in the areas of forestry, flood control, and soil conservation. It was part of the New Deals “relief” sector.
F.E.R.A (1933)
Gave federal money to the states and cities to feed the needy and pay for public works projects. It was also part of the relief sector of the New Deal.
Agricultural Adjustment Act (1933)
Known as the AAA, it paid farmers to reduce production and offered aid to them. It was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1936.
Civil Works Administration (1933) [CWA]
The Civil Works Administration was established by the New Deal during the Great Depression to create jobs for millions of unemployed. The jobs were merely temporary, for the duration of the hard winter. Harry L. Hopkins was put in charge of the organization. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiled the CWA on November 8, 1933. The CWA was a project created under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). Because FERA failed to give people jobs, another program was needed and the CWA the answer.
Supreme Court Decisions with the NRA and the AAA
United States vs. Butler determined that the AAA was unconstitutional due to the fact that its processing tax was illegal. The second case dealt with the NRA (AKA the NIRA) and stated that it was an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to the Executive, and was not a valid exercise of congressional commerce clause power.
The Second New Deal
The Second New Deal" (1935–36) was a more radical redistribution of power; it included union protection programs, the Social Security Act, and programs to aid tenant farmers and migrant workers. The Supreme Court ruled several programs unconstitutional (some parts of them were however soon replaced, with the exception of the National Recovery Administration).
WPA
The works progress Administration employed manual labors to build roads, bridges, and public buildings. In addition the WPA supported the arts and literature with such projects as the Federal Writes projects, the federal music project, Federal Arts project, and the federal theatre project. The WPA was part of the ERAA; the Emergency Relief Appropriations Act (1935), which established work programs that would be financed by the government, the WPA was one of the more decisive programs.
The Second Agricultural Adjustment Act (2-AAA)
Wagner Act
Implemented after the NIRA was declared unconstitutional, the Wagner Act legalized union membership in the USA. As a result union membership soared from 3 million in the 1920’s to almost 11 million in 1933.
GM Strike
Also known as the Flint Sit down Strike, it occurred in the winters of 1936 and 37, it changed the United Automobile Workers from a collection of isolated locals on the fringes of the industry into a major union and led to the unionization of the United States automobile industry. Workers basically stopped work and refused to leave the floor shop. This prevented the employers from reopening the factory with replacement workers. This particular strike resulted in General Motors recognizing the United Auto Workers as the bargaining unit for its 400, 000 workers.
Steel Strike
The SWOC (the steel workers organization committee) began organizing major rallies/drives of thousands of people; these sometimes broke out into bitter strikes. On Memorial Day 1937 a group of striking workers from republic steel rallied their families for a picnic and demonstration. When they began to march peacefully and legally towards the steel plant police open fired. 10 demonstrators were killed, and that’s why, to this day, this “steel strike” is known as the Memorial Day massacre.
-1. TVA
-1. Tennessee Valley Authority Act
-1. To improve the navigability and to provide for the flood control of the Tennessee River; to provide for reforestation and the proper use of marginal lands in the Tennessee Valley; to provide for the agricultural and industrial development of said valley; to provide for the national defense by the creation of a corporation for the operation of Government properties at and near Muscle Shoals in the State of Alabama, and for other purposes.
-1. Social Security
0-1. Social Security in the United States is a social insurance program funded through dedicated payroll taxes called Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). Tax deposits are formally entrusted to Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, or Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund, Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund or the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund. The main part of the program is sometimes abbreviated OASDI (Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance) or RSDI (Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance). When initially signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935, the term Social Security covered unemployment insurance as well. The term, in everyday speech, is used only to refer to the benefits for retirement, disability, survivorship, and death, which are the four main benefits provided by traditional private-sector pension plans.
-1. Court Packing Plan
-1. A move by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to increase the size of the Supreme Court and then bring in several new justices who would change the balance of opinion on the Court. Roosevelt proposed to pack the Court in the 1930s, when several conservative justices were inclined to declare parts of his program, the New Deal, unconstitutional. Congress would not allow the number of justices to be increased, and Roosevelt was criticized for trying to undermine the independence of the Court.
-1. John Maynard Keynes/ Keynsian Economics
-1. Keynsian Economics is an economic theory based on the ideas of twentieth-century British economist John Maynard Keynes. The state, according to Keynesian economics, can help maintain economic growth and stability in a mixed economy, in which both the public and private sectors play important roles. Keynesian economics seeks to provide solutions to what some consider failures of laissez-faire economic liberalism, which advocates that markets and the private sector operate best without state intervention. The theories forming the basis of Keynesian economics were first presented in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, published in 1936.
-1. Powell v. Alabama
零. Chief Justice Charles Evan Hughes
零. 1932
零. Conviction of 9 Scottsboro Boys for rape was ruled unconstitutional because they were denied counsel from the time of their arrangement to the beginning of their trial.
-1. Norris v. Alabama
零. Exclusion of all negroes from a grand jury by which a negro is indicted, or from the petit jury by which he is tried for the offense, resulting from systematic and arbitrary exclusion of negroes from the jury lists solely because of their race or color, is a denial of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed to him by the Fourteenth Amendment.
零. Whenever a conclusion of law of a state court as to a federal right is so intermingled with findings of fact that the latter control the former, it is incumbent upon this Court to analyze the facts in order that the enforcement of the federal right may be assured.
Evidence reviewed and found to establish systematic exclusion of Negroes from jury service in two Alabama counties, solely because of their race and color.
Glass Steagul Act
This act provided for banking reform and set up the FDIC. The FDIC is short for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and it insured bank deposits up to $5,000 dollars to encourage people to use banks.
FDR’s Gold Standard Policy
The CCC
It provided employment for young men in the areas of forestry, flood control, and soil conservation. It was part of the New Deals “relief” sector.
F.E.R.A (1933)
Gave federal money to the states and cities to feed the needy and pay for public works projects. It was also part of the relief sector of the New Deal.
Agricultural Adjustment Act (1933)
Known as the AAA, it paid farmers to reduce production and offered aid to them. It was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1936.
Civil Works Administration (1933) [CWA]
The Civil Works Administration was established by the New Deal during the Great Depression to create jobs for millions of unemployed. The jobs were merely temporary, for the duration of the hard winter. Harry L. Hopkins was put in charge of the organization. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiled the CWA on November 8, 1933. The CWA was a project created under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). Because FERA failed to give people jobs, another program was needed and the CWA the answer.
Supreme Court Decisions with the NRA and the AAA
United States vs. Butler determined that the AAA was unconstitutional due to the fact that its processing tax was illegal. The second case dealt with the NRA (AKA the NIRA) and stated that it was an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to the Executive, and was not a valid exercise of congressional commerce clause power.
The Second New Deal
The Second New Deal" (1935–36) was a more radical redistribution of power; it included union protection programs, the Social Security Act, and programs to aid tenant farmers and migrant workers. The Supreme Court ruled several programs unconstitutional (some parts of them were however soon replaced, with the exception of the National Recovery Administration).
WPA
The works progress Administration employed manual labors to build roads, bridges, and public buildings. In addition the WPA supported the arts and literature with such projects as the Federal Writes projects, the federal music project, Federal Arts project, and the federal theatre project. The WPA was part of the ERAA; the Emergency Relief Appropriations Act (1935), which established work programs that would be financed by the government, the WPA was one of the more decisive programs.
The Second Agricultural Adjustment Act (2-AAA)
Wagner Act
Implemented after the NIRA was declared unconstitutional, the Wagner Act legalized union membership in the USA. As a result union membership soared from 3 million in the 1920’s to almost 11 million in 1933.
GM Strike
Also known as the Flint Sit down Strike, it occurred in the winters of 1936 and 37, it changed the United Automobile Workers from a collection of isolated locals on the fringes of the industry into a major union and led to the unionization of the United States automobile industry. Workers basically stopped work and refused to leave the floor shop. This prevented the employers from reopening the factory with replacement workers. This particular strike resulted in General Motors recognizing the United Auto Workers as the bargaining unit for its 400, 000 workers.
Steel Strike
The SWOC (the steel workers organization committee) began organizing major rallies/drives of thousands of people; these sometimes broke out into bitter strikes. On Memorial Day 1937 a group of striking workers from republic steel rallied their families for a picnic and demonstration. When they began to march peacefully and legally towards the steel plant police open fired. 10 demonstrators were killed, and that’s why, to this day, this “steel strike” is known as the Memorial Day massacre.
-1. TVA
-1. Tennessee Valley Authority Act
-1. To improve the navigability and to provide for the flood control of the Tennessee River; to provide for reforestation and the proper use of marginal lands in the Tennessee Valley; to provide for the agricultural and industrial development of said valley; to provide for the national defense by the creation of a corporation for the operation of Government properties at and near Muscle Shoals in the State of Alabama, and for other purposes.
-1. Social Security
0-1. Social Security in the United States is a social insurance program funded through dedicated payroll taxes called Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). Tax deposits are formally entrusted to Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, or Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund, Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund or the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund. The main part of the program is sometimes abbreviated OASDI (Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance) or RSDI (Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance). When initially signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935, the term Social Security covered unemployment insurance as well. The term, in everyday speech, is used only to refer to the benefits for retirement, disability, survivorship, and death, which are the four main benefits provided by traditional private-sector pension plans.
-1. Court Packing Plan
-1. A move by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to increase the size of the Supreme Court and then bring in several new justices who would change the balance of opinion on the Court. Roosevelt proposed to pack the Court in the 1930s, when several conservative justices were inclined to declare parts of his program, the New Deal, unconstitutional. Congress would not allow the number of justices to be increased, and Roosevelt was criticized for trying to undermine the independence of the Court.
-1. John Maynard Keynes/ Keynsian Economics
-1. Keynsian Economics is an economic theory based on the ideas of twentieth-century British economist John Maynard Keynes. The state, according to Keynesian economics, can help maintain economic growth and stability in a mixed economy, in which both the public and private sectors play important roles. Keynesian economics seeks to provide solutions to what some consider failures of laissez-faire economic liberalism, which advocates that markets and the private sector operate best without state intervention. The theories forming the basis of Keynesian economics were first presented in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, published in 1936.
-1. Powell v. Alabama
零. Chief Justice Charles Evan Hughes
零. 1932
零. Conviction of 9 Scottsboro Boys for rape was ruled unconstitutional because they were denied counsel from the time of their arrangement to the beginning of their trial.
-1. Norris v. Alabama
零. Exclusion of all negroes from a grand jury by which a negro is indicted, or from the petit jury by which he is tried for the offense, resulting from systematic and arbitrary exclusion of negroes from the jury lists solely because of their race or color, is a denial of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed to him by the Fourteenth Amendment.
零. Whenever a conclusion of law of a state court as to a federal right is so intermingled with findings of fact that the latter control the former, it is incumbent upon this Court to analyze the facts in order that the enforcement of the federal right may be assured.
Evidence reviewed and found to establish systematic exclusion of Negroes from jury service in two Alabama counties, solely because of their race and color.
CHAPTERS 16-19
CHAPTER 16-19
plains Indians-Nomadic Blackfoot, Arapaho, Assiniboine, Cheyenne, Comanche, Crow, Gros Ventre, Kiowa, Lakota, Lipan, Plains Apache (or Kiowa Apache), Plains Cree, Sarsi, Shoshone, and Tonkawa. Semi-sedintary Arikara, Hidatsa, Iowa, Kaw (or Kansa), Mandan, Omaha, Osage, Otoe, Pawnee, Ponca, and Wichita. Survived on the Bison
indian disadvantages-at war against an economically, industrially advanced culture
taos indian rebeliion-1847 new mexico, killed governor and anglo-american officials
anglo-american onslaught-English forced out, sometimes violently the californios or mexicans
hispanics oppressed-texas, many Mexicans lost their land even after the war
increasing chinese immigration- many came due to gold rush. 200,000 by 1880 in west
transcontinental RR- 90% of workers were Chinese.
china towns- community in a city made, organized and governed by Chinese
growing gender balance- # of Chinese women increased, about half were prostitutes
chinese exclusion act-banned Chinese immigration for 10 years. Barred already present Chinese from becoming naturalized citizens. Made permanent in 1902
home stead act of 1862-permitted settlers to buy plots of 160 acres for a small fee if occupied and improved for 5 years
Plains Indians: the Indians of the great plains proved to be the hardest part for white settlers to overcome in their quest for western expansion, there were many tribes that filled the great plains of central and western united states. Most tribes did not want to join forces against the white aggression, but three of the tribes, the Sioux the Arapaho and the Cheyenne had formed an alliance that dominated the plains.
Indian disadvantages: in this time the disadvantages toward the Indians was immense with the far more industrialized settlers.
Taos Indian rebellion: When the Taos Indians rebelled, the killed the new governor and other Anglo-American officials before being subdued by united states army forces.
Anglo-American onslaught: The Mexicans who lived in California where excluded from the mines during the gold rush, also the Mexicans where were there also lost their lands and farms from either corrupt business deals or outright seizure.
Increasing Chinese immigration: by 1880 more than 20,000 Chinese had settled in the United States. At first the Chinese where accepted as hardworking conscientious people. However the idea of the Chinese changed very quickly when because the white Americans began to think of the Chinese as rivals.
Importance of the Transcontinental Railroad: during the construction of the transcontinental railroad, the Chinese had been 90% of the work force for the pacific side of the construction. This was because the Chinese worked harder and demanded little and worked for low wages. But in 1866 the Chinese workers rebelled against the conditions and went on strike to demand higher wages and a shorter workday, but the company starved them into submission. When the railroad was completed in 1869 thousands of Chinese lost their jobs.
Chinatowns: When the railroad had been finished, most of the Chinese flocked to the cities, the biggest Chinatown had appeared in San Francisco. Most of the Chinese formed the lower ring of the work force, but the main occupations of the Chinese were laundry workers, by the 1890’s two-thirds of the laundry workers were Chinese.
Growing gender balance: most of the Chinese women that came to America came because the were sold here as prostitutes but after the 1880’s, the Chinese men started seeking companionship in families.
Chinese exclusion act: congress solved the violence problem by creating the Chinese exclusion act which prevented the Chinese from immigrating to the u.s. and also prevented the Chinese already here from becoming naturalized citizens.
Homestead act of 1862: provided plots of land of 160 acres for a small fee if they occupied the land they purchased for five years and improved it.
Multiracial working class: the western working class was made up of whites African Americans and immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, also the Chinese Filipinos Mexicans and Indians. The whites occupied the better and more skilled jobs while the unskilled jobs there were very few whites.
Mining booms: in 1849 the gold rush to California occurred. At first it was individual mining, then corporations moved to lode mining which dug deeper, when this happened, the farmers and ranchers established a permanent economy
Gender disparity: at this time the men greatly outnumbered the women. the women who did move to these towns usually came with their husbands but those who didn’t had a great market for prostitution.
Concentration policy: By the early 1850s, the idea of establishing one great enclave in which many tribes could live gave way to a new reservations policy known as “concentration”. In 1851, the government assigned all the tribes their own defined reservations, confirmed by individual treaties—treaties often illegitimately negotiated with unauthorized “representatives” chosen by whites, people known sarcastically as “treaty chiefs”. It divided the tribes from one another and made them easier to control. It allowed the government to force tribes into scattered locations and to take over the most desirable lands for white settlement.
After the Civil War, professional and amateur hunters—even scasual visitors shooting from passing trains—swarmed over the plains, slaughtering the huge animals.Some Indian tribes (notably the Blackfeet) also began killing large numbers of buffalo to sell in the booming new market. In 1865, there had b een at least 15 million buffalo; a decade later, fewer than a thousand of the great beasts survived.
Indian warriors attacked wagon trains, stagecoaches, and isolated ranches, often in retaliation for earler attacks on them by whites. As the US Army became more deeply involved in the fighting, the tribes began to focus more of their attacks on white soldiers.
After being attacked by Indians in eastern Colorado, whites called up a large territorial militia. The governor urged all friendly Indians to congregate at army posts for protection before the army began its campaign. One Arapaho and Cheyenne band under Black Kettle, apparently in response to the invitation, camped near Fort Lyon on Sand Creek in November 1864. Some members of the part were warriors, but Black Kettle believed he was under official protection and exhibited no hostile intention. Nevertheless, Colonel J. M. Chivington led a volunteer militia force—largely consisting of unemployed miners, many of whom were apparently drunk—to the unsuspecting camp and massacred 133 people, 105 of them women and children.
It was not only he US military that harassed the tribes. It was also unofficial violence by white vigilantes who engaged in what became known as “Indian hunting”. Sometimes the killing was in response to Indian raids on white communities. But considerable numbers of whites were committed to the goal of literal “elimination” of the tribes whatever their behavior, a goal that rested on the belief in the essential inhumanity of Indians and the impossibility of white coexistence with them. Indian population in California from 150,000 before the Civil War to 30,000 in 1870.
At the Battle of the Little Bighorn in southern Montana in 1876, an unprecedentedly large army, perhaps 2,500 tribal warriors,, surprised Custer and part of his regiment, surrounded them, and killed every man.
Leader of the Nez Perce, persuaded his followers to flee from the expected retrib ution. American toops pursued and attacked them, only to be ddriven off in a battle at White Bird Canyon.Joseph moved with 200 warriors and 350 women, children and old people in an effort to reach Canada. They were finally caught just short of the Cadain boundary.
Inspired ecstatic, mystical visions—including images of the retreat of white people from the plains and a restoration of the great buffalo herds
Fighting broke out in which about 40 white soldiers and up to 200 of the Indians died in South Dakota.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs tried to move Indian families onto their own plots of land and also took many Indian children away from their families and sent them to boarding schools un by whites. They moved as well to stop Idian religious rituals and ncouraged the spread of Chrisitianiy and the creation o Christian churches on the reservations.
For a time in the late 1870s and early 1880s, the new western farmers flourished, enjoying the fruits of an agricultural economic boom. Beginning in the mid-1880s, however the boom turned to bust, and the western agricultural economy began a long, steady decline.
Cheap rail ratesà The rail roads promoted settlement in utah, and lowered their ticket prices for trips west
Barbed wire was developed—in order to fence in the large ranches in the plains
Scarce Waterà Water was scarce in the plains even when there was rainfall, after a series of good rainfall years, a series of bad rainfall years came—and the plains converted back to a desert region—but some farmers dealt w/ the water problem by using well pumps powered by steel wind mills
Most people who moved to the plains were farmers in the Midwest before
There were booming agrarian years in the 1880’s, after that it became arid and dry, and production became more expensive
Reverse Migrationà Since production became too expensive many farmers went into debt—eventually these farmers migrated back east, where they were originally from—turning once flourishing towns into ghost towns, and those who refused to migrate east continued to suffer from the falling prices
Commercial agricultureà The production of crops for sale, crops intended for widespread distribution (e.g. supermarkets), and any non-food crops such as cotton and tobacco
Over Productionà from 1865-1900 farms around the world dramatically increased production—world wide overproduction led to a drop in prices for most agricultural goods, commercial farming had made some people extremely wealthy, but the industry was suffering relative to the rest of the nations economy.
Grievancesà overproduction was causing the farming industry to decline, people started to search for what the problem was, their answer were very immediate: inadequate freight rates, high interest rates, and an inadequate currency—but this was not the cause of over production, only unwanted expenses—that caused some farmers to go into debt.
Belief in Conspiracyà the third and last big grievance concerned the prices of the crops, a conspiracy theory began circulating—the middle men, the speculators were thought to be fixing the prices
These agrarian resentments led to isolation of farm life—many teenagers left the farms for the city—because they were so bored.
Isolation and obsolenceà these feelings led to discomfort amongst many of the farmers. Some farmers began to write. Farmers were becoming aware of their position in the declining agrarian market and the new industrial/urban growth.
Chapter 17
Alexander graham bellà in 1866 Cyrus W. Field laid a transatlantic telegraph cable to Europe. Then in the next decade, Alexander Bell developed the first telephone with commercial capacity. Then in the next 50 years, the radio, typewriter, car, and plane were fabricated—helping business in America.
Impact of electric powerà the greatest invention was in the findings of electricity. The pioneers of electric power include charles f. bush (arc lamp), and Thomas Edison who invented the incandescent light bulb.
RR’s revved upà 40, 000 miles of RR track were added in the 1870’s and 80’s due to an increase in iron production.
Bessemer processàThe Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass-production of steel from molten pig iron. The process is named after its inventor, Henry Bessemer, who took out a patent on the process in 1855. The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation through air being blown through the molten iron. The oxidation also raises the temperature of the iron mass and keeps it molten.
New Blast furnacesà built in 1870 and after—these furnaces were 75 feet tall and could produce 500 tons of steel per week.
New transportation systemsà since the steel industry expanded, new transportation systems had to emerge. New steam engines were created to serve the new freighters being built (of steel).
Rise of the petroleum industryà the rising steel industry served many different aspects of the American economy, but in the new transportation systems lubrication was needed, this is where oil came in. There was oil in western Pennsylvania. George Bissel showed people that oil could be used in many different ways. He raised money and started drilling, and produced more than 500 barrels per month—the demand for the substance grew quick, especially with the rise of the automobile.
Henry fordà petrol (gasoline) was discovered, you could extract it from oil, and the internal combustion engine was soon after developed. The American car industry soon developed several famous cars. Henry Ford—creator of the assembly line also created the first of the famous cars. In 1895 there were 4 cars in America, in 1920 there were 5 million.
The Wright brosà began constructing a glider in 1899 that would end up being propelled by engine. By 1904 they improved the airplane so much that it could fly 23 miles. But its good to note that most of the first aero technologies were developed in france.
Corporate research and developmentà General Electric was one of the first companies to develop their own laboratories. The Emergence of corporate research labs coincided with a decline in government support for research.
Taylorismà Scientific management (also called Taylorism, the Taylor system, or the Classical Perspective) is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflow processes, improving labor productivity. He said if employees each did little things the whole process would be faster and more efficient.
Assembly lineà introduced by Henry Ford, the assembly line, at first dealt with automobiles but soon delved into other industries. The main jist of the assembly line is that employees each do one thing, they (for example) specialize at either putting on the wheels or painting the car.
Importance of government subsidiesà the government was important in funding expansion of RR’s, and other industries.
Limited liabilityà Limited liability is a concept whereby a person's financial liability is limited to a fixed sum, most commonly the value of a person's investment in a company or partnership with limited liability. A shareholder in a limited company is not personally liable for any of the debts of the company, other than for the value of his investment in that company.
US steel createdà Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant worked his way up and created his own steel mill, soon to find himself at the top of the industry. He soon bought up coal mines and RR’s. He financed his buyings buy selling stock. In 1901 he sold out to JP morgan for 450 million—he merged Carnegies busineses with others and created US steel, worth 14 billion and con trolls 2/3’s of the nations steel production.
horizontal integration-a number of firms engaged in the same enterprise combined into 1 corporation
Vertical integration-A large company takes over different businesses that it relies on
standard oil-vertically and horizontally integrated company owned by John Rockefeller. Everything painted red
holding company-central corporate body that buys up stock of various members of company
ideology of individualism-industry provides a chance to succeed and obtain wealth
social Darwinism-the fittest will survive and benefit while the less fit will not suceed
corporate wealth legitimated-leaders used social Darwinism to explain their success
gospel of wealth-the wealthy had great responsibility to advance social progress
horatio alger-once homosexual preacher. Author who wrote “rags to riches” stories
socialsist labor party-pro-reformers of capitalism, very little success
henry georges single tax-land tax designed to destroy monopolies, distribute wealth more equally and eliminate poverty.
American Railway union: led by Eugene V. Debs. This group went on strike and all transportation from Chicago to the pacific coast was paralyzed.
Government intervention in homestead strike: the governor of Pennsylvania sent the state’s entire National Guard contingent, approximately 8000 men to Homested.
Henry Clay Frick: Shortly after marrying his wife, Adelaide Childs, in 1881, Frick met Andrew Carnegie in New York City (the Fricks were on their honeymoon). This meeting resulted in a partnership between H. C. Frick & Company and Carnegie Steel Company, and was the predecessor to United States Steel. This partnership ensured that Carnegie's steel mills had adequate supplies of coke. Frick became chairman of the company
Haymarket bombing: at Haymarket Square on May 1 when the police told the crowd to disperse, someone threw a bomb killing seven police officers and injuring sixty-7 others.
Samuel gompers: Gompers helped found the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in 1881 as a coalition of like-minded unions. In 1886 it was reorganized into the American Federation of Labor, with Gompers as its president. He would remain president of the organization until his death (with the exception of one year, 1895).
AFL: The AFL was the largest union grouping in the United States for the first half of the twentieth century, even after the creation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) by unions that left the AFL in 1938 over its opposition to organizing mass production industries. While the union was founded and dominated by craft unions throughout the first fifty years of its existence, many of its craft union affiliates turned to organizing on an industrial basis to meet the challenge from the CIO in the 1940s.
Terrence V. Powderly: For several years the knights remained a secret fraternal organization. But in the late 1870’s, under the leadership of Terence V. Powderly, the order moved into the open and entered a period of spectacular expansion. By 1886, it claimed a total membership of over 700,000.
Rail road strike of 1877: when the railroad company announced a 10% wage decrease all workers from St. Louis to Baltimore destroyed equipment and rioted. When it was over 100 people had died only a couple weeks after it had begun. This was the first major national labor conflict in America.
Molly Maguires: This was a militant group that used violence and even murder in its battles, but much of the violence was instigated by the operation managers to suppress unionization.
Child labor: at least 1.7 million children under sixteen years of age were employed in factories and fields; 10% of all girls aged ten to fifteen, and 20% of all boys, held jobs.
Harsh working conditions: Most factory laborers worked ten-hour days, six days a week; in the steel industry they worked twelve hours a day. Industrial accidents were frequent.
Growing ethnic tensions: groups didn’t like each other. Big surprise.
Temperance movement: The temperance movement attempted to greatly reduce the amount of alcohol consumed or even prohibit its production and consumption entirely. In predominantly Muslim countries, temperance is part of Islam. In predominantly Protestant countries, forms of Christianity influenced by Wesleyan views on sanctification have strongly supported it at times. More specifically, religious or moralistic beliefs have often been the catalyst for temperance, though secular advocates do exist. The Women's Christian Temperance Union is a prominent example of a religion-based temperance movement.
WCTU: The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is the oldest continuing non-sectarian women's organization in the U.S. and worldwide. Founded in Fredonia, New York in 1873, the group spearheaded the crusade for prohibition. Members advanced their cause by entering saloons, singing, praying, and urging saloonkeepers to stop selling alcohol. Subsequently, on December 22, 1873, they were the first local organization to adopt the name, Women's Christian Temperance Union.
Frances Willard: Frances Willard expressed views that conflicted with a fellow progressive, the African-American journalist Ida B. Wells. Wells accused Willard of supporting the stereotype of white women needing to be protected against black men, which conflicted with Well's own efforts to dispel that stereotype, as well as accusing Willard of not speaking out against the lynching of black men. Willard repeatedly denied Wells' accusation and maintained that her primary focus was upon empowering and protecting women. (Willard's WCTU actively recruited black women and included them in its membership.)
Political Machines- Boss Tweed, Tammy Hall:
Tee Totaler:
Lizzie Borden: ] (July 19, 1860 – June 1, 1927, both in Fall River, Massachusetts) was a New England spinster who was the central figure in the hatchet murders of her father and stepmother on August 4, 1892 in Fall River, Massachusetts in the United States. The slayings, subsequent trial, and the following trial by media became a cause célèbre, and the fame of the incident has endured in American pop culture and criminology. Although Lizzie Borden was acquitted, no one else was ever arrested or tried, and she has remained notorious in American folklore. Dispute over the identity of the killer or killers continues to this day.
Margret Sanger: (September 14, 1879 – September 6, 1966) was an American birth control activist, an advocate of negative eugenics, and the founder of the American Birth Control League (which eventually became Planned Parenthood). Initially met with fierce opposition to her ideas, Sanger gradually won some support, both in the public as well as the courts, for a woman's choice to decide how and when, if ever, she will bear children. Margaret Sanger was instrumental in opening the way to universal access to birth control
In 1881, representatives of a number of craft unions formed the Federation of Organized Trade and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada. Fiver years later, this body took the name it has borne ever since, the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Rejecting the Knights of Labor’s idea of one big union for everybody, the Federation was an association of essentially autonomous craft unions that represented mainly skilled workers.\
The powerful leader of the AFL, concentrated on labor’s immediate objectives: wages, hours, and working conditions.
In Chicago, a center of labor and radical strength, a strike was already in progress at the McCormick Harvester Company. City police had been harassing the strikers, and labor and radical leaders called a protest meeting at Haymarket Square on May 1. When the police ordered the c rowd to disperse, someone threw a bomb that killed seven policemen and injured sixty-seven others. The police, who had killed four strikers the day before, fired into the crowd and killed four more people. Conservative, property-conscious Americans—frightened and outraged—demanded retribution. Chicago officials finally rounded up eight anarchists and charged them with murder, on the grounds that their statements had incited whoever had hurled the bomb. All eight scapegoats were fond guilty after a remarkably injudicious trial. Sever were sentenced to death. One of them committed suicide, four were executes, and two had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.
To most middle-class Americans, the Haymarket bombing was an alarming symbol of social chaos and radicalism. “Anarchism” now became in the public mind a code word for terrorism and violence, even though most anarchists were relatively peaceful,For the next thirty years, the specter of anarchism remained one of the most frightening concepts in the American imagination. It was a constant obstacle to the goals of the AFL and other labor organizations, and it did particular damage to the Knights of Labor. However much they tried to distance themselves from the radicals, labor leaders were always vulnerable to accusation of anarchism, as the violent strikes of the 1890s occasionally illustrated.
Carnegie’s chief lieutenant, they had decided that the Amalgamated “hato go”. Over the next two years, they repeatedly cut wages at Homestead. At first, the union acquiesced, aware that it was not strong enough to wage a successful strike. But in 1892, when the company stopped even discussing its decisions with the union and gave it two days to accpt another wage cut, the Amalgamated called for a strike. Frick abruptly shut down the plant and called in 300 guards from the Pinkerton Detective agency, well known as strikebreakers, to enable the company to hire nonunion workers. They approached the plant by river, on barges on July 6, 1892. The trikers poured gasoline on the water, set it on fire, and then met the Pinkertons at the docks with guns and dynamite. After several hours of fighting, which killed three guards and ten strikers and injured many others, the Pinkertons surrendered and were escorted roughly out of town.
The worker’s victory was temporary. The governor of Pennsylvania, at the comopany’s request, sent the state’s entire national Guard contingent, some 8,000 men, to Homestead. Production resumed, with strikebreakers now protected by troops.
Was the largest union of its time, and the first industrial union in the United States. It was founded on June 20, 1893, by railway workers gathered in Chicago, Illinois, and under the leadership of Eugene V. Debs (locomotive fireman and later Socialist Presidential candidate), the ARU, unlike the trade unions, incorporated a policy of unionizing all railway workers, regardless of craft or service. Within a year, the ARU had hundreds of affiliated local chapters and over 140,000 members nationwide.Beginning in August 1893, the Great Northern Railroad cut wages repeatedly through March 1894. By April, the ARU voted to strike and shut the railroad down for 18 days, pressuring the railroad to restore the workers' wages. It was the ARU's first and only victory.Similarly, the Pullman Palace Car Company cut wages five times – 30 to 70 percent – between September and March. The Company was based in the town of Pullman, Illinois, named after its owner, millionaire George Pullman. The town of Pullman was his "utopia." He owned the land, homes and stores. Workers had to live in his homes and buy from his stores, thereby ensuring virtually all wages returned directly back into his pockets. Upon cutting wages, the workers suffered greatly from this setup as rent and product prices remained the same. The workers formed a committee to express their grievances resulting in three of its members being laid off, resulting in a full stop in production on May 11, 1894.
In the last decades of the nineteenth century, labor made few real gains despite militant organizing efforts. Industrial wages rose harldy at all. Labor leaders won a few legislative victories—the abolition of the Contract Labor Law, the establisment of an eight-hour day for government employees, compensation for some owrkers injured on the job, and others. But many such laws were not enforced. Widespread strikes and protests, and many other working-class forms of resistance, large and small, led to few real gains. The end of the century found most workers with less political power and less control of the workplace than they had had forty years before.
The shifting nature of the work force was a source of labor weakness. Many immigrant workers came to America intending to earn some money and then return home. The assumption hat they had no long0range future in the country eroded their willingness to organize. Other workers were in constant motion, moving from one job to another, one town to another, seldom in a single place long enough to establish any institutional ties or exert real power. Above all, perhaps, workers made few gains in the late nineteenth century because they faced corporate organizations of vast wealth and power, which were gnerally determine to crush any efforts by workers to challenge their prerogatives. And as the Homestead and Pullman strikes suggest, the corporations usually had the suport of local, state, and federal authrorities, who were willing to send in troops to “preserve order” and crush labor uprisings on dmand.
Despite the creation of new labor unions and a wave of strikes and protests, workrs in the late nineteenth century failed on the whole to create successful organizations or to protect their interests. In the battle for power within the emerging industrial economy, almost all the advantages seemed to lie with capital.
Chapter 18
In the late nineteenth century, Americans left the declining agricultural regions of the East at a dramatic rate. Some moved to the newly developing farmlands of the West. But almost as many moved to the cities of the East and the Midwest.
The most important source of urban population growth, however was the great number of new immigrants from abroad. Some came from Canada, Latin America, and—particularly on the West Coast—China and Japan. But the greatest number came from Europe.
By 1890, most of the population of the major cities consisted of immigrants: 87 percent of the population in Chicago, 80 percent in New York, 84 percent in Milwaukee and Detroit.Equally striking was the diversity of new immigrant populations. In other countries experiencing heavy immigration in this period, most of the new arrivals were coming from one or two sources. But in the United States, no single national group dominated.
The cultural cohesiveness of the ethnic communities clearly eased the pain of separation from the immigrants’ native lands. Some ethnic groups (Jews and Germans in particular) advanced economically more rapidly than others (for example, the Irish). One explanation is tha t, by huddling together in ethnic neighborhoods, immigrant groups tended to reinforce the cultural values of their previous societies. When those values were particularly well suited to economic advancement—for example, the high value Jews placed on education—ethnic identification may have helped members of a group to improve their lots. When other values predominated—maintaining community solidarity, strengthening family ties, preserving order—progress could be less rapid.
Native-born Americans encouraged assimilation in countless ways. Public schools taught children in English, and employers often insisted that workers speak English on the job. Most non-ethnic stores sold mainly American products, forcing immigrants to adapt their diets, clothing, and lifestyles to American norms.
They proposed screening immigrants through literacy tests and other standards, to separate the “desirable” from the “undesirable”.
Immigrants provided a cheap and plentiful labor supply to the rapidly growing economy, and many argued that America’s industrial (and indeed agricultural) development would be impossible without it.
It would allow city residents a healthy, restorative escape from the strains of urban life by reacquainting them with the natural world. Federick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux deliberately created a public space that would look as little like the city as possible. Instead of the ordered, formal spaces common in some European cities, they created instead a space that seemed entirely natural.
Led the “city beautiful” movement. The movement strove to impose a similar order and symmetry on the disordered life of cities around the country.
One of the largest public works projects ever undertaken in America to that point, the city of Boston gradually filed in a large area of marshy tidal land in the late 1880s to create the neighborhood know as “Back Bay”.
Many of the moderately well-to-do took advantage of less expensive land on the edges of the city and settled in new suburbs, linked to the downtowns by trains or streetcars.
jacob riisàwas a Danish immigrant who was a photographer—he shocked the USA middle class with his pictures of tenement life, aka the slums.
sky scrapersàchicago 1884, the first skyscraper, ten stories tall was built—it launched a new era of architecture, the construction industry emerged as a result. And the development of elevators made taller buildings possible. Buildings were made fireproof to control raging city fires—fire departments were built too.
inadequate sanitationà disease was an even greater struggle for cities than fires. Diseases attained in poor regions of a city were usually passed onto the middle class region where there it would be passed onto the upper class—and soon there was an endemic disease. The problem was in improper sewage disposal—it would get into drinking water and stuff. Typhoid fever and cholera were typical.
air pollutionà many people were unaware of “environmental destruction” aka pollution. Large factories were extracting large sums of coal into the atmosphere and creating a “perpetual fog” in the cities.
public health serviceà(1912) it attempted to create common health standards for all factories—its duty was in preventing diseases from becoming endemic in the large cities.
growing crime rateà in the late 19th century the murder rate quadrupled from 25 out of a million to 100. This was due to urban expansion, which created more poverty. In the south there were a lot of homicides, in the west there was instability--namely suicide. Native born Americans were as likely to commit a crime as an immigrant. The rich, in order to protect themselves, built gates, and bought guns, lots of them.
function of the urban bossà to win votes for his organization, to help get him on top, helping people out. Those who were loyal attained privlages—they attained municipal jobs mainly.
william m tweedà most corrupt urban boss, extravagant usage of public funds got him sent to jail.
rising incomeà everyone in the us had a rising income, some more than others, but still everyones was rising—many fortunes were made due to the emergence of new industries—the middle class experienced an uplift. Doctors, lawyers and other pros. Experienced a dramatic uplift.
ready made clothingà rising income made mass consumerism possible. An enormous industry arouse out of this—apparel. Buying and preparing food was also a big part of consumerism. Consumerism provided the country with more healthy food and as a result the life expectancy rose 6 years.
Consumerismà the rise in income per person, allowing people to buy really what ever they wanted—which created new industries food markets, and clothing/apparel—before the civil war people made their own clothing.
marshall field-created 1 of the first department stores in chicago
national consumer league-lead by Florence Kelley, attempted to mobilize women’s power as consumers to force retailers/manufacturers to improve wages and working conditions
simon patten- argued that leisure was affordable, and almost a necessity in the industrial age
baseball-“rounders” adopted version of cricket became big quickly after civil war
basketball invented-1891 by James Naismith, Springfield mass.
vaudeville-form of theater using French models, included acts. Florenz Ziegfield famous for this
d.w. Griffith-pioneer of motion pictures: the birth of a nation, intolerance
coney island-famous and fabulous amusement park/resort in brooklyn
dime novels-tales of detectives, wild west, and other moral uplift stories
william randolph hearst-very wealthy man who by 1914 controlled 9 newspapers and 2 magazines
Unprecedented Geographical Mobility: a lot of people moved to the west
Diverse Immigrant Populations: over 80% of the population in major cities were immigrants
Importance of Ethnic Ties: the different important things that groups had rubbed off on other people and the community grew as a whole.
Assimilation Encouraged: schools only taught English, but assimilation was still encouraged.
Immigration Restriction League: five Harvard alumni founded an organization that tested the immigrant to sort the desirables and the undesirables.
Cheap Immigrant Labor: because of the amount of immigrants in the country, there were very few jobs not filled even at and incredibly low rate.
chapter 19
PARKER!!!!—didn’t do chapter 19, tisk, tisk.
Grover Cleveland (known as “reform” governor) was respected, if not often liked, for his stern and righteous opposition to politicians, grafters, pressure groups, and Tammany Hall. He embodied an era in which few Americans believed the federal government could, or should, do very much. Cleveland had always doubted the wisdom of protective tariffs. The existing high rates, he believed, were responsible for the annual surplus in federal revenues, which was tempting Congress to pass “reckless” and “extravagant” legislation, which he frequently vetoed.
The Democrats re-nominated Cleveland and supported tariff reductions. The Republicans settled on former senator Benjamin Harrison of Indiana, who was obscure but respectable and the grandson of President William Henry Harrison; and they endorsed protection. The campaign was both the first since the Civil War to involve a clear question of economic difference between the parties and one of the most corrupt elections in American history. Cleveland won the popular vote by 100,000, but Harrison won an electoral majority of 233 to 168 and thus the presidency.
Despite its name, the Act has fairly little to do with "trusts". Around the world, what U.S. lawmakers and attorneys call "Antitrust" is more commonly known as "competition law." The purpose of the act was to oppose the combination of entities that could potentially harm competition, such as monopolies or cartels. Its reference to trusts today is anachronism. At the time of its passage, the trust was synonymous with monopolistic practice, because the trust was a popular way for monopolists to hold their businesses, and a way for cartel participants to create enforceable agreements. The Sherman Act was not specifically intended to prevent the dominance of an industry by a specific company, despite misconceptions to the contrary. According to Senator George Hoar, an author of the bill, any company that "got the whole business because nobody could do it as well as he could" would not be in violation of the act. The law attempts to prevent the artificial raising of prices by restriction of trade or supply [1]. In other words, innocent monopoly, or monopoly achieved solely by merit, is perfectly legal, but acts by a monopolist to artificially preserve his status, or nefarious dealings to create a monopoly, are not.
Representative William McKinley of Ohio and Senator Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island drafted the highest protective measure ever proposed to congress. Known as the McKinley Tariff, it became law in October 1890. The tariff was detrimental to the American people, since it acted to raise the price of goods purchased; anything being bought from overseas which now became more expensive than a local product rose in price to that of the local product, and anything bought from overseas which even with its price increase was still cheaper than a local product had to be bought at the new, higher price. This made the mass of people significantly less wealthy in real terms since everything cost more. This tended to cause an increase in wages, as people required more pay to maintain proper renumeration for their skills, which in turn increased the cost of producing local goods, since the cost of labour rose. This in turn acted to make people poorer. The tariff was in fact the harshest detrimental to the American farmers. Not only did the tariff drive up the prices of farm equipment (since wages and imported components were more expensive), it also failed to halt sliding agricultural prices, possibly since there wasn't much competition with imported goods since American agricultural produce was already cheaper than imports.
Banned discrimination in rates between long and short hauls, required that railroads publish their rate schedules and file them with the government, and declared that all interstate rail rates must be “reasonable and just”.
The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, also simply styled the Grange, is a fraternal organization for American farmers that encouraged farm families to band together for their common economic and political good. Founded in 1867 after the Civil War, it is the oldest surviving agricultural organization in America, though now much diminished from the over one million members it had in its peak in the 1890s through the 1950s. In addition to serving as a center for many farming communities, the Grange was an effective special interest group for farmers and their agendas, including fighting railroad monopolies and pushing for rural mail deliveries. Indeed, the word "grange" itself comes from a Latin word for grain, and is related to a "granary" or, more generically, a farm.
Saw it as an effort to build a new kind of society in which economic competition might give way to cooperation. The Farmers' Alliance was an organized agrarian economic movement amongst U.S. farmers that flourished in the 1880s. First formed in 1876 in Lampasas, Texas, the Alliance was designed to promote higher commodity prices through collective action by groups of individual farmers. The movement was strongest in the South and Great Plains, and was widely popular before it was destroyed by the power of commodity brokers. Despite its failure, it is regarded as the precursor to the United States Populist Party, which grew out of the ashes of the Alliance in 1889.
peoples party establishedàThe Populist Party (also known as the People's Party) was a relatively short-lived political party in the United States in the late 19th century. It flourished particularly among western farmers, based largely on its opposition to the gold standard. The party did not remain a lasting feature of the political landscape, though many of its ideals have. The very term "populist" has since become a generic term in U.S. politics for politics, which appeals to the common in opposition to established interests.
populisms limited appealàalthough populism really appealed to farmers, populism failed to expand beyond this group. They really didn’t know if they wanted to accept blacks into the party—interracial issues.
Knights of laboràThe Knights of Labor, also known as Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, was one of the most important American labor organizations of the 19th century. Founded by nine Philadelphia tailors in 1869 and led by Uriah S. Stephens, its ideology may be described as producerist, demanding an end to child and convict labor, equal pay for women, a progressive income tax, and the cooperative employer-employee ownership of mines and factories.
the populists reform programàPopulist ideas: proposed a system of subtreasuries where farmers could use the crops as collateral and get a loan, they wanted an abolition of national banks, they wanted direct election of us senators, government ownership of RRs and telegraphs; a graduated income tax—their ideas were aimed at fixing the economy.
The Panic of 1893àCauses: People attempted to redeem silver notes for gold; ultimately the statutory limit for the minimum amount of gold in federal reserves was reached and U.S. notes could no longer be successfully redeemed for gold. The investments during the time of the Panic were heavily financed through bond issues with high interest payments. The National Cordage Company (the most actively traded stock at the time) went into receivership as a result of its bankers calling their loans in response to rumors regarding the NCC's financial distress. A series of bank failures followed, and the price of silver fell. The Northern Pacific Railway, the Union Pacific Railroad and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad all failed. This was followed by the bankruptcy of many other companies; in total over 15,000 companies and 500 banks failed (many in the west). About 17%-19% of the workforce was unemployed at the Panic's peak.
Homestead and Pullman strikesà The depression caused major labor upheavals—in both strikes laborers were locked out of the factories and stripped of their jobs.
“Bi-metallism”à In economics, bimetallism is a monetary standard in which the value of the monetary unit can be expressed as a certain amount of gold and as a certain amount of silver; the ratio between the two metals is fixed by law. In economic history the debate took place primarily inside the United States in the late 19th century, as the U.S. was the only major country that was a large producer of both gold and silver.
Crime of 73à The Fourth Coinage Act was enacted by the United States Congress in 1873 and embraced the gold and denied silver. Western mining interests and others who wanted silver in circulation labeled this measure the "Crime of '73". For about five years, gold was the only metallic standard in the United States. This measure was a contributing factor to the subsequent depression that ravaged America from 1873-78.
Free silverà Free Silver was an important political issue in the late 19th century United States. To understand exactly what is meant by "free coinage of silver", it is necessary to understand the way mints operated in the days of the gold standard. Essentially, anyone who possessed un-coined gold, such as successful prospectors, or assayers or refiners to whom they had sold their holdings, could deposit it at one of the U.S. Mints, where it would be made into gold coins. The coins would then be given to the depositor, less a small deduction for processing and funding Mint operations. Possibly in most cases the depositor would not receive coins made of the actual gold he had deposited, but would receive his due compensation in coins the mint already had ready. Free silver advocates wanted silver to be accepted by the mints in the same way; if you deposited enough silver, by weight, to manufacture a silver dollar, then the mint should pay out a silver dollar to you.
sherman silver purchase act-increased the amount of silver that the government was required to purchase every month
mckinley nominated-ex congressman, ohio governor, republican ran presidency of 1896
cross of gold speech-“Youu shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold”
fusion-the populists parties only option was to fuse with the democrats
emergence of modern campaigning-the traditional “front-porch” campaign was replaced with large conventions in multiple states. Bryan traveled 18,000 mi., addressed 5 mil people
demise of the populist party-they gambled and lost everything with the fusion with the democrats after that party lost
gold standard act-the only standard for redeeming money, 1900
plains Indians-Nomadic Blackfoot, Arapaho, Assiniboine, Cheyenne, Comanche, Crow, Gros Ventre, Kiowa, Lakota, Lipan, Plains Apache (or Kiowa Apache), Plains Cree, Sarsi, Shoshone, and Tonkawa. Semi-sedintary Arikara, Hidatsa, Iowa, Kaw (or Kansa), Mandan, Omaha, Osage, Otoe, Pawnee, Ponca, and Wichita. Survived on the Bison
indian disadvantages-at war against an economically, industrially advanced culture
taos indian rebeliion-1847 new mexico, killed governor and anglo-american officials
anglo-american onslaught-English forced out, sometimes violently the californios or mexicans
hispanics oppressed-texas, many Mexicans lost their land even after the war
increasing chinese immigration- many came due to gold rush. 200,000 by 1880 in west
transcontinental RR- 90% of workers were Chinese.
china towns- community in a city made, organized and governed by Chinese
growing gender balance- # of Chinese women increased, about half were prostitutes
chinese exclusion act-banned Chinese immigration for 10 years. Barred already present Chinese from becoming naturalized citizens. Made permanent in 1902
home stead act of 1862-permitted settlers to buy plots of 160 acres for a small fee if occupied and improved for 5 years
Plains Indians: the Indians of the great plains proved to be the hardest part for white settlers to overcome in their quest for western expansion, there were many tribes that filled the great plains of central and western united states. Most tribes did not want to join forces against the white aggression, but three of the tribes, the Sioux the Arapaho and the Cheyenne had formed an alliance that dominated the plains.
Indian disadvantages: in this time the disadvantages toward the Indians was immense with the far more industrialized settlers.
Taos Indian rebellion: When the Taos Indians rebelled, the killed the new governor and other Anglo-American officials before being subdued by united states army forces.
Anglo-American onslaught: The Mexicans who lived in California where excluded from the mines during the gold rush, also the Mexicans where were there also lost their lands and farms from either corrupt business deals or outright seizure.
Increasing Chinese immigration: by 1880 more than 20,000 Chinese had settled in the United States. At first the Chinese where accepted as hardworking conscientious people. However the idea of the Chinese changed very quickly when because the white Americans began to think of the Chinese as rivals.
Importance of the Transcontinental Railroad: during the construction of the transcontinental railroad, the Chinese had been 90% of the work force for the pacific side of the construction. This was because the Chinese worked harder and demanded little and worked for low wages. But in 1866 the Chinese workers rebelled against the conditions and went on strike to demand higher wages and a shorter workday, but the company starved them into submission. When the railroad was completed in 1869 thousands of Chinese lost their jobs.
Chinatowns: When the railroad had been finished, most of the Chinese flocked to the cities, the biggest Chinatown had appeared in San Francisco. Most of the Chinese formed the lower ring of the work force, but the main occupations of the Chinese were laundry workers, by the 1890’s two-thirds of the laundry workers were Chinese.
Growing gender balance: most of the Chinese women that came to America came because the were sold here as prostitutes but after the 1880’s, the Chinese men started seeking companionship in families.
Chinese exclusion act: congress solved the violence problem by creating the Chinese exclusion act which prevented the Chinese from immigrating to the u.s. and also prevented the Chinese already here from becoming naturalized citizens.
Homestead act of 1862: provided plots of land of 160 acres for a small fee if they occupied the land they purchased for five years and improved it.
Multiracial working class: the western working class was made up of whites African Americans and immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, also the Chinese Filipinos Mexicans and Indians. The whites occupied the better and more skilled jobs while the unskilled jobs there were very few whites.
Mining booms: in 1849 the gold rush to California occurred. At first it was individual mining, then corporations moved to lode mining which dug deeper, when this happened, the farmers and ranchers established a permanent economy
Gender disparity: at this time the men greatly outnumbered the women. the women who did move to these towns usually came with their husbands but those who didn’t had a great market for prostitution.
Concentration policy: By the early 1850s, the idea of establishing one great enclave in which many tribes could live gave way to a new reservations policy known as “concentration”. In 1851, the government assigned all the tribes their own defined reservations, confirmed by individual treaties—treaties often illegitimately negotiated with unauthorized “representatives” chosen by whites, people known sarcastically as “treaty chiefs”. It divided the tribes from one another and made them easier to control. It allowed the government to force tribes into scattered locations and to take over the most desirable lands for white settlement.
After the Civil War, professional and amateur hunters—even scasual visitors shooting from passing trains—swarmed over the plains, slaughtering the huge animals.Some Indian tribes (notably the Blackfeet) also began killing large numbers of buffalo to sell in the booming new market. In 1865, there had b een at least 15 million buffalo; a decade later, fewer than a thousand of the great beasts survived.
Indian warriors attacked wagon trains, stagecoaches, and isolated ranches, often in retaliation for earler attacks on them by whites. As the US Army became more deeply involved in the fighting, the tribes began to focus more of their attacks on white soldiers.
After being attacked by Indians in eastern Colorado, whites called up a large territorial militia. The governor urged all friendly Indians to congregate at army posts for protection before the army began its campaign. One Arapaho and Cheyenne band under Black Kettle, apparently in response to the invitation, camped near Fort Lyon on Sand Creek in November 1864. Some members of the part were warriors, but Black Kettle believed he was under official protection and exhibited no hostile intention. Nevertheless, Colonel J. M. Chivington led a volunteer militia force—largely consisting of unemployed miners, many of whom were apparently drunk—to the unsuspecting camp and massacred 133 people, 105 of them women and children.
It was not only he US military that harassed the tribes. It was also unofficial violence by white vigilantes who engaged in what became known as “Indian hunting”. Sometimes the killing was in response to Indian raids on white communities. But considerable numbers of whites were committed to the goal of literal “elimination” of the tribes whatever their behavior, a goal that rested on the belief in the essential inhumanity of Indians and the impossibility of white coexistence with them. Indian population in California from 150,000 before the Civil War to 30,000 in 1870.
At the Battle of the Little Bighorn in southern Montana in 1876, an unprecedentedly large army, perhaps 2,500 tribal warriors,, surprised Custer and part of his regiment, surrounded them, and killed every man.
Leader of the Nez Perce, persuaded his followers to flee from the expected retrib ution. American toops pursued and attacked them, only to be ddriven off in a battle at White Bird Canyon.Joseph moved with 200 warriors and 350 women, children and old people in an effort to reach Canada. They were finally caught just short of the Cadain boundary.
Inspired ecstatic, mystical visions—including images of the retreat of white people from the plains and a restoration of the great buffalo herds
Fighting broke out in which about 40 white soldiers and up to 200 of the Indians died in South Dakota.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs tried to move Indian families onto their own plots of land and also took many Indian children away from their families and sent them to boarding schools un by whites. They moved as well to stop Idian religious rituals and ncouraged the spread of Chrisitianiy and the creation o Christian churches on the reservations.
For a time in the late 1870s and early 1880s, the new western farmers flourished, enjoying the fruits of an agricultural economic boom. Beginning in the mid-1880s, however the boom turned to bust, and the western agricultural economy began a long, steady decline.
Cheap rail ratesà The rail roads promoted settlement in utah, and lowered their ticket prices for trips west
Barbed wire was developed—in order to fence in the large ranches in the plains
Scarce Waterà Water was scarce in the plains even when there was rainfall, after a series of good rainfall years, a series of bad rainfall years came—and the plains converted back to a desert region—but some farmers dealt w/ the water problem by using well pumps powered by steel wind mills
Most people who moved to the plains were farmers in the Midwest before
There were booming agrarian years in the 1880’s, after that it became arid and dry, and production became more expensive
Reverse Migrationà Since production became too expensive many farmers went into debt—eventually these farmers migrated back east, where they were originally from—turning once flourishing towns into ghost towns, and those who refused to migrate east continued to suffer from the falling prices
Commercial agricultureà The production of crops for sale, crops intended for widespread distribution (e.g. supermarkets), and any non-food crops such as cotton and tobacco
Over Productionà from 1865-1900 farms around the world dramatically increased production—world wide overproduction led to a drop in prices for most agricultural goods, commercial farming had made some people extremely wealthy, but the industry was suffering relative to the rest of the nations economy.
Grievancesà overproduction was causing the farming industry to decline, people started to search for what the problem was, their answer were very immediate: inadequate freight rates, high interest rates, and an inadequate currency—but this was not the cause of over production, only unwanted expenses—that caused some farmers to go into debt.
Belief in Conspiracyà the third and last big grievance concerned the prices of the crops, a conspiracy theory began circulating—the middle men, the speculators were thought to be fixing the prices
These agrarian resentments led to isolation of farm life—many teenagers left the farms for the city—because they were so bored.
Isolation and obsolenceà these feelings led to discomfort amongst many of the farmers. Some farmers began to write. Farmers were becoming aware of their position in the declining agrarian market and the new industrial/urban growth.
Chapter 17
Alexander graham bellà in 1866 Cyrus W. Field laid a transatlantic telegraph cable to Europe. Then in the next decade, Alexander Bell developed the first telephone with commercial capacity. Then in the next 50 years, the radio, typewriter, car, and plane were fabricated—helping business in America.
Impact of electric powerà the greatest invention was in the findings of electricity. The pioneers of electric power include charles f. bush (arc lamp), and Thomas Edison who invented the incandescent light bulb.
RR’s revved upà 40, 000 miles of RR track were added in the 1870’s and 80’s due to an increase in iron production.
Bessemer processàThe Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass-production of steel from molten pig iron. The process is named after its inventor, Henry Bessemer, who took out a patent on the process in 1855. The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation through air being blown through the molten iron. The oxidation also raises the temperature of the iron mass and keeps it molten.
New Blast furnacesà built in 1870 and after—these furnaces were 75 feet tall and could produce 500 tons of steel per week.
New transportation systemsà since the steel industry expanded, new transportation systems had to emerge. New steam engines were created to serve the new freighters being built (of steel).
Rise of the petroleum industryà the rising steel industry served many different aspects of the American economy, but in the new transportation systems lubrication was needed, this is where oil came in. There was oil in western Pennsylvania. George Bissel showed people that oil could be used in many different ways. He raised money and started drilling, and produced more than 500 barrels per month—the demand for the substance grew quick, especially with the rise of the automobile.
Henry fordà petrol (gasoline) was discovered, you could extract it from oil, and the internal combustion engine was soon after developed. The American car industry soon developed several famous cars. Henry Ford—creator of the assembly line also created the first of the famous cars. In 1895 there were 4 cars in America, in 1920 there were 5 million.
The Wright brosà began constructing a glider in 1899 that would end up being propelled by engine. By 1904 they improved the airplane so much that it could fly 23 miles. But its good to note that most of the first aero technologies were developed in france.
Corporate research and developmentà General Electric was one of the first companies to develop their own laboratories. The Emergence of corporate research labs coincided with a decline in government support for research.
Taylorismà Scientific management (also called Taylorism, the Taylor system, or the Classical Perspective) is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflow processes, improving labor productivity. He said if employees each did little things the whole process would be faster and more efficient.
Assembly lineà introduced by Henry Ford, the assembly line, at first dealt with automobiles but soon delved into other industries. The main jist of the assembly line is that employees each do one thing, they (for example) specialize at either putting on the wheels or painting the car.
Importance of government subsidiesà the government was important in funding expansion of RR’s, and other industries.
Limited liabilityà Limited liability is a concept whereby a person's financial liability is limited to a fixed sum, most commonly the value of a person's investment in a company or partnership with limited liability. A shareholder in a limited company is not personally liable for any of the debts of the company, other than for the value of his investment in that company.
US steel createdà Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant worked his way up and created his own steel mill, soon to find himself at the top of the industry. He soon bought up coal mines and RR’s. He financed his buyings buy selling stock. In 1901 he sold out to JP morgan for 450 million—he merged Carnegies busineses with others and created US steel, worth 14 billion and con trolls 2/3’s of the nations steel production.
horizontal integration-a number of firms engaged in the same enterprise combined into 1 corporation
Vertical integration-A large company takes over different businesses that it relies on
standard oil-vertically and horizontally integrated company owned by John Rockefeller. Everything painted red
holding company-central corporate body that buys up stock of various members of company
ideology of individualism-industry provides a chance to succeed and obtain wealth
social Darwinism-the fittest will survive and benefit while the less fit will not suceed
corporate wealth legitimated-leaders used social Darwinism to explain their success
gospel of wealth-the wealthy had great responsibility to advance social progress
horatio alger-once homosexual preacher. Author who wrote “rags to riches” stories
socialsist labor party-pro-reformers of capitalism, very little success
henry georges single tax-land tax designed to destroy monopolies, distribute wealth more equally and eliminate poverty.
American Railway union: led by Eugene V. Debs. This group went on strike and all transportation from Chicago to the pacific coast was paralyzed.
Government intervention in homestead strike: the governor of Pennsylvania sent the state’s entire National Guard contingent, approximately 8000 men to Homested.
Henry Clay Frick: Shortly after marrying his wife, Adelaide Childs, in 1881, Frick met Andrew Carnegie in New York City (the Fricks were on their honeymoon). This meeting resulted in a partnership between H. C. Frick & Company and Carnegie Steel Company, and was the predecessor to United States Steel. This partnership ensured that Carnegie's steel mills had adequate supplies of coke. Frick became chairman of the company
Haymarket bombing: at Haymarket Square on May 1 when the police told the crowd to disperse, someone threw a bomb killing seven police officers and injuring sixty-7 others.
Samuel gompers: Gompers helped found the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in 1881 as a coalition of like-minded unions. In 1886 it was reorganized into the American Federation of Labor, with Gompers as its president. He would remain president of the organization until his death (with the exception of one year, 1895).
AFL: The AFL was the largest union grouping in the United States for the first half of the twentieth century, even after the creation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) by unions that left the AFL in 1938 over its opposition to organizing mass production industries. While the union was founded and dominated by craft unions throughout the first fifty years of its existence, many of its craft union affiliates turned to organizing on an industrial basis to meet the challenge from the CIO in the 1940s.
Terrence V. Powderly: For several years the knights remained a secret fraternal organization. But in the late 1870’s, under the leadership of Terence V. Powderly, the order moved into the open and entered a period of spectacular expansion. By 1886, it claimed a total membership of over 700,000.
Rail road strike of 1877: when the railroad company announced a 10% wage decrease all workers from St. Louis to Baltimore destroyed equipment and rioted. When it was over 100 people had died only a couple weeks after it had begun. This was the first major national labor conflict in America.
Molly Maguires: This was a militant group that used violence and even murder in its battles, but much of the violence was instigated by the operation managers to suppress unionization.
Child labor: at least 1.7 million children under sixteen years of age were employed in factories and fields; 10% of all girls aged ten to fifteen, and 20% of all boys, held jobs.
Harsh working conditions: Most factory laborers worked ten-hour days, six days a week; in the steel industry they worked twelve hours a day. Industrial accidents were frequent.
Growing ethnic tensions: groups didn’t like each other. Big surprise.
Temperance movement: The temperance movement attempted to greatly reduce the amount of alcohol consumed or even prohibit its production and consumption entirely. In predominantly Muslim countries, temperance is part of Islam. In predominantly Protestant countries, forms of Christianity influenced by Wesleyan views on sanctification have strongly supported it at times. More specifically, religious or moralistic beliefs have often been the catalyst for temperance, though secular advocates do exist. The Women's Christian Temperance Union is a prominent example of a religion-based temperance movement.
WCTU: The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is the oldest continuing non-sectarian women's organization in the U.S. and worldwide. Founded in Fredonia, New York in 1873, the group spearheaded the crusade for prohibition. Members advanced their cause by entering saloons, singing, praying, and urging saloonkeepers to stop selling alcohol. Subsequently, on December 22, 1873, they were the first local organization to adopt the name, Women's Christian Temperance Union.
Frances Willard: Frances Willard expressed views that conflicted with a fellow progressive, the African-American journalist Ida B. Wells. Wells accused Willard of supporting the stereotype of white women needing to be protected against black men, which conflicted with Well's own efforts to dispel that stereotype, as well as accusing Willard of not speaking out against the lynching of black men. Willard repeatedly denied Wells' accusation and maintained that her primary focus was upon empowering and protecting women. (Willard's WCTU actively recruited black women and included them in its membership.)
Political Machines- Boss Tweed, Tammy Hall:
Tee Totaler:
Lizzie Borden: ] (July 19, 1860 – June 1, 1927, both in Fall River, Massachusetts) was a New England spinster who was the central figure in the hatchet murders of her father and stepmother on August 4, 1892 in Fall River, Massachusetts in the United States. The slayings, subsequent trial, and the following trial by media became a cause célèbre, and the fame of the incident has endured in American pop culture and criminology. Although Lizzie Borden was acquitted, no one else was ever arrested or tried, and she has remained notorious in American folklore. Dispute over the identity of the killer or killers continues to this day.
Margret Sanger: (September 14, 1879 – September 6, 1966) was an American birth control activist, an advocate of negative eugenics, and the founder of the American Birth Control League (which eventually became Planned Parenthood). Initially met with fierce opposition to her ideas, Sanger gradually won some support, both in the public as well as the courts, for a woman's choice to decide how and when, if ever, she will bear children. Margaret Sanger was instrumental in opening the way to universal access to birth control
In 1881, representatives of a number of craft unions formed the Federation of Organized Trade and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada. Fiver years later, this body took the name it has borne ever since, the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Rejecting the Knights of Labor’s idea of one big union for everybody, the Federation was an association of essentially autonomous craft unions that represented mainly skilled workers.\
The powerful leader of the AFL, concentrated on labor’s immediate objectives: wages, hours, and working conditions.
In Chicago, a center of labor and radical strength, a strike was already in progress at the McCormick Harvester Company. City police had been harassing the strikers, and labor and radical leaders called a protest meeting at Haymarket Square on May 1. When the police ordered the c rowd to disperse, someone threw a bomb that killed seven policemen and injured sixty-seven others. The police, who had killed four strikers the day before, fired into the crowd and killed four more people. Conservative, property-conscious Americans—frightened and outraged—demanded retribution. Chicago officials finally rounded up eight anarchists and charged them with murder, on the grounds that their statements had incited whoever had hurled the bomb. All eight scapegoats were fond guilty after a remarkably injudicious trial. Sever were sentenced to death. One of them committed suicide, four were executes, and two had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.
To most middle-class Americans, the Haymarket bombing was an alarming symbol of social chaos and radicalism. “Anarchism” now became in the public mind a code word for terrorism and violence, even though most anarchists were relatively peaceful,For the next thirty years, the specter of anarchism remained one of the most frightening concepts in the American imagination. It was a constant obstacle to the goals of the AFL and other labor organizations, and it did particular damage to the Knights of Labor. However much they tried to distance themselves from the radicals, labor leaders were always vulnerable to accusation of anarchism, as the violent strikes of the 1890s occasionally illustrated.
Carnegie’s chief lieutenant, they had decided that the Amalgamated “hato go”. Over the next two years, they repeatedly cut wages at Homestead. At first, the union acquiesced, aware that it was not strong enough to wage a successful strike. But in 1892, when the company stopped even discussing its decisions with the union and gave it two days to accpt another wage cut, the Amalgamated called for a strike. Frick abruptly shut down the plant and called in 300 guards from the Pinkerton Detective agency, well known as strikebreakers, to enable the company to hire nonunion workers. They approached the plant by river, on barges on July 6, 1892. The trikers poured gasoline on the water, set it on fire, and then met the Pinkertons at the docks with guns and dynamite. After several hours of fighting, which killed three guards and ten strikers and injured many others, the Pinkertons surrendered and were escorted roughly out of town.
The worker’s victory was temporary. The governor of Pennsylvania, at the comopany’s request, sent the state’s entire national Guard contingent, some 8,000 men, to Homestead. Production resumed, with strikebreakers now protected by troops.
Was the largest union of its time, and the first industrial union in the United States. It was founded on June 20, 1893, by railway workers gathered in Chicago, Illinois, and under the leadership of Eugene V. Debs (locomotive fireman and later Socialist Presidential candidate), the ARU, unlike the trade unions, incorporated a policy of unionizing all railway workers, regardless of craft or service. Within a year, the ARU had hundreds of affiliated local chapters and over 140,000 members nationwide.Beginning in August 1893, the Great Northern Railroad cut wages repeatedly through March 1894. By April, the ARU voted to strike and shut the railroad down for 18 days, pressuring the railroad to restore the workers' wages. It was the ARU's first and only victory.Similarly, the Pullman Palace Car Company cut wages five times – 30 to 70 percent – between September and March. The Company was based in the town of Pullman, Illinois, named after its owner, millionaire George Pullman. The town of Pullman was his "utopia." He owned the land, homes and stores. Workers had to live in his homes and buy from his stores, thereby ensuring virtually all wages returned directly back into his pockets. Upon cutting wages, the workers suffered greatly from this setup as rent and product prices remained the same. The workers formed a committee to express their grievances resulting in three of its members being laid off, resulting in a full stop in production on May 11, 1894.
In the last decades of the nineteenth century, labor made few real gains despite militant organizing efforts. Industrial wages rose harldy at all. Labor leaders won a few legislative victories—the abolition of the Contract Labor Law, the establisment of an eight-hour day for government employees, compensation for some owrkers injured on the job, and others. But many such laws were not enforced. Widespread strikes and protests, and many other working-class forms of resistance, large and small, led to few real gains. The end of the century found most workers with less political power and less control of the workplace than they had had forty years before.
The shifting nature of the work force was a source of labor weakness. Many immigrant workers came to America intending to earn some money and then return home. The assumption hat they had no long0range future in the country eroded their willingness to organize. Other workers were in constant motion, moving from one job to another, one town to another, seldom in a single place long enough to establish any institutional ties or exert real power. Above all, perhaps, workers made few gains in the late nineteenth century because they faced corporate organizations of vast wealth and power, which were gnerally determine to crush any efforts by workers to challenge their prerogatives. And as the Homestead and Pullman strikes suggest, the corporations usually had the suport of local, state, and federal authrorities, who were willing to send in troops to “preserve order” and crush labor uprisings on dmand.
Despite the creation of new labor unions and a wave of strikes and protests, workrs in the late nineteenth century failed on the whole to create successful organizations or to protect their interests. In the battle for power within the emerging industrial economy, almost all the advantages seemed to lie with capital.
Chapter 18
In the late nineteenth century, Americans left the declining agricultural regions of the East at a dramatic rate. Some moved to the newly developing farmlands of the West. But almost as many moved to the cities of the East and the Midwest.
The most important source of urban population growth, however was the great number of new immigrants from abroad. Some came from Canada, Latin America, and—particularly on the West Coast—China and Japan. But the greatest number came from Europe.
By 1890, most of the population of the major cities consisted of immigrants: 87 percent of the population in Chicago, 80 percent in New York, 84 percent in Milwaukee and Detroit.Equally striking was the diversity of new immigrant populations. In other countries experiencing heavy immigration in this period, most of the new arrivals were coming from one or two sources. But in the United States, no single national group dominated.
The cultural cohesiveness of the ethnic communities clearly eased the pain of separation from the immigrants’ native lands. Some ethnic groups (Jews and Germans in particular) advanced economically more rapidly than others (for example, the Irish). One explanation is tha t, by huddling together in ethnic neighborhoods, immigrant groups tended to reinforce the cultural values of their previous societies. When those values were particularly well suited to economic advancement—for example, the high value Jews placed on education—ethnic identification may have helped members of a group to improve their lots. When other values predominated—maintaining community solidarity, strengthening family ties, preserving order—progress could be less rapid.
Native-born Americans encouraged assimilation in countless ways. Public schools taught children in English, and employers often insisted that workers speak English on the job. Most non-ethnic stores sold mainly American products, forcing immigrants to adapt their diets, clothing, and lifestyles to American norms.
They proposed screening immigrants through literacy tests and other standards, to separate the “desirable” from the “undesirable”.
Immigrants provided a cheap and plentiful labor supply to the rapidly growing economy, and many argued that America’s industrial (and indeed agricultural) development would be impossible without it.
It would allow city residents a healthy, restorative escape from the strains of urban life by reacquainting them with the natural world. Federick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux deliberately created a public space that would look as little like the city as possible. Instead of the ordered, formal spaces common in some European cities, they created instead a space that seemed entirely natural.
Led the “city beautiful” movement. The movement strove to impose a similar order and symmetry on the disordered life of cities around the country.
One of the largest public works projects ever undertaken in America to that point, the city of Boston gradually filed in a large area of marshy tidal land in the late 1880s to create the neighborhood know as “Back Bay”.
Many of the moderately well-to-do took advantage of less expensive land on the edges of the city and settled in new suburbs, linked to the downtowns by trains or streetcars.
jacob riisàwas a Danish immigrant who was a photographer—he shocked the USA middle class with his pictures of tenement life, aka the slums.
sky scrapersàchicago 1884, the first skyscraper, ten stories tall was built—it launched a new era of architecture, the construction industry emerged as a result. And the development of elevators made taller buildings possible. Buildings were made fireproof to control raging city fires—fire departments were built too.
inadequate sanitationà disease was an even greater struggle for cities than fires. Diseases attained in poor regions of a city were usually passed onto the middle class region where there it would be passed onto the upper class—and soon there was an endemic disease. The problem was in improper sewage disposal—it would get into drinking water and stuff. Typhoid fever and cholera were typical.
air pollutionà many people were unaware of “environmental destruction” aka pollution. Large factories were extracting large sums of coal into the atmosphere and creating a “perpetual fog” in the cities.
public health serviceà(1912) it attempted to create common health standards for all factories—its duty was in preventing diseases from becoming endemic in the large cities.
growing crime rateà in the late 19th century the murder rate quadrupled from 25 out of a million to 100. This was due to urban expansion, which created more poverty. In the south there were a lot of homicides, in the west there was instability--namely suicide. Native born Americans were as likely to commit a crime as an immigrant. The rich, in order to protect themselves, built gates, and bought guns, lots of them.
function of the urban bossà to win votes for his organization, to help get him on top, helping people out. Those who were loyal attained privlages—they attained municipal jobs mainly.
william m tweedà most corrupt urban boss, extravagant usage of public funds got him sent to jail.
rising incomeà everyone in the us had a rising income, some more than others, but still everyones was rising—many fortunes were made due to the emergence of new industries—the middle class experienced an uplift. Doctors, lawyers and other pros. Experienced a dramatic uplift.
ready made clothingà rising income made mass consumerism possible. An enormous industry arouse out of this—apparel. Buying and preparing food was also a big part of consumerism. Consumerism provided the country with more healthy food and as a result the life expectancy rose 6 years.
Consumerismà the rise in income per person, allowing people to buy really what ever they wanted—which created new industries food markets, and clothing/apparel—before the civil war people made their own clothing.
marshall field-created 1 of the first department stores in chicago
national consumer league-lead by Florence Kelley, attempted to mobilize women’s power as consumers to force retailers/manufacturers to improve wages and working conditions
simon patten- argued that leisure was affordable, and almost a necessity in the industrial age
baseball-“rounders” adopted version of cricket became big quickly after civil war
basketball invented-1891 by James Naismith, Springfield mass.
vaudeville-form of theater using French models, included acts. Florenz Ziegfield famous for this
d.w. Griffith-pioneer of motion pictures: the birth of a nation, intolerance
coney island-famous and fabulous amusement park/resort in brooklyn
dime novels-tales of detectives, wild west, and other moral uplift stories
william randolph hearst-very wealthy man who by 1914 controlled 9 newspapers and 2 magazines
Unprecedented Geographical Mobility: a lot of people moved to the west
Diverse Immigrant Populations: over 80% of the population in major cities were immigrants
Importance of Ethnic Ties: the different important things that groups had rubbed off on other people and the community grew as a whole.
Assimilation Encouraged: schools only taught English, but assimilation was still encouraged.
Immigration Restriction League: five Harvard alumni founded an organization that tested the immigrant to sort the desirables and the undesirables.
Cheap Immigrant Labor: because of the amount of immigrants in the country, there were very few jobs not filled even at and incredibly low rate.
chapter 19
PARKER!!!!—didn’t do chapter 19, tisk, tisk.
Grover Cleveland (known as “reform” governor) was respected, if not often liked, for his stern and righteous opposition to politicians, grafters, pressure groups, and Tammany Hall. He embodied an era in which few Americans believed the federal government could, or should, do very much. Cleveland had always doubted the wisdom of protective tariffs. The existing high rates, he believed, were responsible for the annual surplus in federal revenues, which was tempting Congress to pass “reckless” and “extravagant” legislation, which he frequently vetoed.
The Democrats re-nominated Cleveland and supported tariff reductions. The Republicans settled on former senator Benjamin Harrison of Indiana, who was obscure but respectable and the grandson of President William Henry Harrison; and they endorsed protection. The campaign was both the first since the Civil War to involve a clear question of economic difference between the parties and one of the most corrupt elections in American history. Cleveland won the popular vote by 100,000, but Harrison won an electoral majority of 233 to 168 and thus the presidency.
Despite its name, the Act has fairly little to do with "trusts". Around the world, what U.S. lawmakers and attorneys call "Antitrust" is more commonly known as "competition law." The purpose of the act was to oppose the combination of entities that could potentially harm competition, such as monopolies or cartels. Its reference to trusts today is anachronism. At the time of its passage, the trust was synonymous with monopolistic practice, because the trust was a popular way for monopolists to hold their businesses, and a way for cartel participants to create enforceable agreements. The Sherman Act was not specifically intended to prevent the dominance of an industry by a specific company, despite misconceptions to the contrary. According to Senator George Hoar, an author of the bill, any company that "got the whole business because nobody could do it as well as he could" would not be in violation of the act. The law attempts to prevent the artificial raising of prices by restriction of trade or supply [1]. In other words, innocent monopoly, or monopoly achieved solely by merit, is perfectly legal, but acts by a monopolist to artificially preserve his status, or nefarious dealings to create a monopoly, are not.
Representative William McKinley of Ohio and Senator Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island drafted the highest protective measure ever proposed to congress. Known as the McKinley Tariff, it became law in October 1890. The tariff was detrimental to the American people, since it acted to raise the price of goods purchased; anything being bought from overseas which now became more expensive than a local product rose in price to that of the local product, and anything bought from overseas which even with its price increase was still cheaper than a local product had to be bought at the new, higher price. This made the mass of people significantly less wealthy in real terms since everything cost more. This tended to cause an increase in wages, as people required more pay to maintain proper renumeration for their skills, which in turn increased the cost of producing local goods, since the cost of labour rose. This in turn acted to make people poorer. The tariff was in fact the harshest detrimental to the American farmers. Not only did the tariff drive up the prices of farm equipment (since wages and imported components were more expensive), it also failed to halt sliding agricultural prices, possibly since there wasn't much competition with imported goods since American agricultural produce was already cheaper than imports.
Banned discrimination in rates between long and short hauls, required that railroads publish their rate schedules and file them with the government, and declared that all interstate rail rates must be “reasonable and just”.
The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, also simply styled the Grange, is a fraternal organization for American farmers that encouraged farm families to band together for their common economic and political good. Founded in 1867 after the Civil War, it is the oldest surviving agricultural organization in America, though now much diminished from the over one million members it had in its peak in the 1890s through the 1950s. In addition to serving as a center for many farming communities, the Grange was an effective special interest group for farmers and their agendas, including fighting railroad monopolies and pushing for rural mail deliveries. Indeed, the word "grange" itself comes from a Latin word for grain, and is related to a "granary" or, more generically, a farm.
Saw it as an effort to build a new kind of society in which economic competition might give way to cooperation. The Farmers' Alliance was an organized agrarian economic movement amongst U.S. farmers that flourished in the 1880s. First formed in 1876 in Lampasas, Texas, the Alliance was designed to promote higher commodity prices through collective action by groups of individual farmers. The movement was strongest in the South and Great Plains, and was widely popular before it was destroyed by the power of commodity brokers. Despite its failure, it is regarded as the precursor to the United States Populist Party, which grew out of the ashes of the Alliance in 1889.
peoples party establishedàThe Populist Party (also known as the People's Party) was a relatively short-lived political party in the United States in the late 19th century. It flourished particularly among western farmers, based largely on its opposition to the gold standard. The party did not remain a lasting feature of the political landscape, though many of its ideals have. The very term "populist" has since become a generic term in U.S. politics for politics, which appeals to the common in opposition to established interests.
populisms limited appealàalthough populism really appealed to farmers, populism failed to expand beyond this group. They really didn’t know if they wanted to accept blacks into the party—interracial issues.
Knights of laboràThe Knights of Labor, also known as Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, was one of the most important American labor organizations of the 19th century. Founded by nine Philadelphia tailors in 1869 and led by Uriah S. Stephens, its ideology may be described as producerist, demanding an end to child and convict labor, equal pay for women, a progressive income tax, and the cooperative employer-employee ownership of mines and factories.
the populists reform programàPopulist ideas: proposed a system of subtreasuries where farmers could use the crops as collateral and get a loan, they wanted an abolition of national banks, they wanted direct election of us senators, government ownership of RRs and telegraphs; a graduated income tax—their ideas were aimed at fixing the economy.
The Panic of 1893àCauses: People attempted to redeem silver notes for gold; ultimately the statutory limit for the minimum amount of gold in federal reserves was reached and U.S. notes could no longer be successfully redeemed for gold. The investments during the time of the Panic were heavily financed through bond issues with high interest payments. The National Cordage Company (the most actively traded stock at the time) went into receivership as a result of its bankers calling their loans in response to rumors regarding the NCC's financial distress. A series of bank failures followed, and the price of silver fell. The Northern Pacific Railway, the Union Pacific Railroad and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad all failed. This was followed by the bankruptcy of many other companies; in total over 15,000 companies and 500 banks failed (many in the west). About 17%-19% of the workforce was unemployed at the Panic's peak.
Homestead and Pullman strikesà The depression caused major labor upheavals—in both strikes laborers were locked out of the factories and stripped of their jobs.
“Bi-metallism”à In economics, bimetallism is a monetary standard in which the value of the monetary unit can be expressed as a certain amount of gold and as a certain amount of silver; the ratio between the two metals is fixed by law. In economic history the debate took place primarily inside the United States in the late 19th century, as the U.S. was the only major country that was a large producer of both gold and silver.
Crime of 73à The Fourth Coinage Act was enacted by the United States Congress in 1873 and embraced the gold and denied silver. Western mining interests and others who wanted silver in circulation labeled this measure the "Crime of '73". For about five years, gold was the only metallic standard in the United States. This measure was a contributing factor to the subsequent depression that ravaged America from 1873-78.
Free silverà Free Silver was an important political issue in the late 19th century United States. To understand exactly what is meant by "free coinage of silver", it is necessary to understand the way mints operated in the days of the gold standard. Essentially, anyone who possessed un-coined gold, such as successful prospectors, or assayers or refiners to whom they had sold their holdings, could deposit it at one of the U.S. Mints, where it would be made into gold coins. The coins would then be given to the depositor, less a small deduction for processing and funding Mint operations. Possibly in most cases the depositor would not receive coins made of the actual gold he had deposited, but would receive his due compensation in coins the mint already had ready. Free silver advocates wanted silver to be accepted by the mints in the same way; if you deposited enough silver, by weight, to manufacture a silver dollar, then the mint should pay out a silver dollar to you.
sherman silver purchase act-increased the amount of silver that the government was required to purchase every month
mckinley nominated-ex congressman, ohio governor, republican ran presidency of 1896
cross of gold speech-“Youu shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold”
fusion-the populists parties only option was to fuse with the democrats
emergence of modern campaigning-the traditional “front-porch” campaign was replaced with large conventions in multiple states. Bryan traveled 18,000 mi., addressed 5 mil people
demise of the populist party-they gambled and lost everything with the fusion with the democrats after that party lost
gold standard act-the only standard for redeeming money, 1900
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